Trump boasts ‘good’ relations with N. Korea’s Kim
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump suggested in an interview Thursday that he has developed a positive relationship with the North Korean leader but declined to say whether they have spoken.
No sitting U.S. president is known to have spoken with a North Korean leader. The two nations have remained in a state of war and without diplomatic relations since the Korean War ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.
“I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal. “I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised.” Asked if he had spoken with Kim, Trump said: “I’m not saying I have or haven’t. I just don’t want to comment.”
The president’s remarks came after North Korea and South Korea this week held their first talks in two years, and the North agreed to participate in the Winter Olympics in the South next month.
Trump claimed credit Wednesday for the dialogue, saying North Korea was feeling the pressure of a U.S.-led campaign of sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile development. He said the U.S. was open to talks with North Korea under the right circumstances.
Trump and Kim have traded bellicose rhetoric and crude insults over the last year as North Korea has accelerated weapons tests and appears on the cusp of having a nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the U.S. mainland.
Trump discussed North Korea in a call Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron. A White House statement said the two leaders discussed Macron’s recent visit to China and committed to continue to pressure North Korea.
Also in The Wall Street Journal interview, Trump accused an FBI agent who was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team of “treason.” He was referring to Peter Strzok, an FBI agent who had been assigned to work on Mueller’s team investigating potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. Strzok was removed last summer following the discovery of anti-Trump text messages he exchanged with an FBI lawyer who was also assigned to the team.
Aitan Goelman, a lawyer for Strzok, said Trump’s allegation was “beyond reckless”