N. Korea tempers response to Trump

SEOUL — North Korea appeared unwilling Sunday to respond harshly after President Donald Trump reversed course to declare it still a threat, pledging that its leader Kim Jong Un’s regime seeks a “new era” with the United States.

The comments also did not address promises by North Korea to return the remains of some U.S. military personnel from the Korean War. On Saturday, the U.S. military sent 100 wooden coffins to a U.N.-supervised area in the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in anticipation of receiving some of the remains.

A report in Uriminzokkiri, a North Korean website that reflects the views of Kim’s regime, urged both sides to move ahead with “faithfully implementing” the joint declaration from the June 12 summit in Singapore between Trump and Kim.

The document expressed Kim’s “firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

But North Korea has yet to clarify its interpretation of denuclearization in the region.

In the past, Pyongyang has defined it to include an end to the U.S.-South Korea military alliance and U.S. withdrawal of its nuclear umbrella protecting South Korea and Japan.

“We will conscientiously fulfill our responsibility to address decades-long tensions and hostile relations, and open a new era of the North-U. S. cooperation,” the Uriminzokkiri report added, without mentioning North Korea’s nuclear program or Trump.