U.S. President Seeks New Meeting with North Korea Leader, Reuters Reports

KCNA via TRT World

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year, but Pyongyang has responded cautiously, signalling that it would impose strict conditions for any potential meeting, Reuters reported on Friday.

Despite Trump describing his relationship with Kim as “excellent”, North Korea’s response suggests that reviving their diplomatic engagement could prove difficult.

Earlier this week, ‌Trump abruptly scaled back joint U.S. military exercises with South Korea, saying they were "hostile" to North Korea. On Wednesday, he said he expects to meet Kim later this year.

"The United States remains open to ⁠dialogue with North Korea without preconditions," said a U.S. State Department spokesperson, according to Reuters. "The president and Kim Jong Un will meet again at the appropriate time."

Kim Yo Jong, Kim's influential sister, has dismissed the scale-back of the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, saying its continuation remained aggressive and that the U.S. policy towards North Korea was still hostile. She also denied that Trump and Kim had had any contact, although she described the personal relationship between the leaders as "excellent."

On Thursday, North Korea launched about 10 ballistic missiles off its east coast, according to South Korea's military, in what analysts said may have been a protest against the ongoing U.S.-South Korea exercises.

"If the U.S. side attempts to promote the measures they have taken this time as some kind of 'goodwill gesture,' they will not get the answer they desire," Kim Yo Jong said in her statement, according to state news agency ‌KCNA.

According to Reuters, the State Department spokesperson said the U.S. "remains committed to the complete denuclearisation of North Korea".

Trump held an unprecedented series of summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, but the diplomatic efforts broke down over U.S. demands that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons.

Trump has since ⁠referred to North Korea repeatedly as a "nuclear power," although his administration has continued to call for the country's denuclearisation and does not formally recognise it as a nuclear-weapon state.

Kim also has less incentive to agree to a meeting than he had back in Trump's first term, when he sought sanctions relief. North Korea has since drawn closer to China and Russia, with whom growing trade has helped drive its economy.



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