Web Desk(National Times)- A day after he ordered the United States to scale back military exercises with South Korea and called North Korea \u201cunthreatening and respectful,\u201d US President Donald Trump said on Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had responded to his outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s relationship with Kim has received less White House emphasis than it did in his first term, when the two men met and exchanged letters, but the US president has repeatedly signaled interest in reviving direct diplomacy with the North Korean leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked by a reporter in the Oval Office why Kim had not responded to his efforts to reengage, Trump responded, \u201che has.\u201d He did not provide further details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White House officials and North Korea\u2019s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond when asked to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump on Sunday instructed the Pentagon to \u201csubstantially reduce\u201d joint military exercises with long-term Asian ally South Korea, citing the cost of the drills and Seoul\u2019s refusal to take part in actions against Iran. North Korea denounces such drills as preparations for war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kim and Trump\u2019s relationship was a dominant theme during Trump\u2019s first term. They held summits in 2018 and 2019 before negotiations broke down over Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear weapons arsenal. North Korea is under heavy international sanctions over those weapons, as well as its ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year, Kim\u2019s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, conceded that the personal relationship between her brother and Trump was \u201cnot bad,\u201d but if Washington intended to use a personal relationship as a way to end Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear weapons program, the effort would only be the subject of \u201cmockery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since Trump and Kim last met in 2019, North Korea has significantly strengthened ties with Russia while maintaining close relations with China. North Korean troops have fought alongside Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, and Kyiv said last week that North Korean-made missiles were used in a Russian ballistic missile attack on a steel plant in Zaporizhzhia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s administration has repeatedly criticised North Korea\u2019s military support for Russia in Ukraine, but on Monday the president said \u201cKim Jong Un has always treated me with great respect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI understand him. He understands me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday in Pyongyang, while making no mention of Trump, North Korea\u2019s state news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying in a message to North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui that North Korea and Russia are working to establish a \u201cnew and righteous world order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
North Korea \u2018unthreatening and respectful\u2019
On Sunday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that drills were \u201cnot only costly\u2026 but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Analysts say that despite North Korea\u2019s coolness to Trump\u2019s overtures and the much stronger position Kim is in since their last summit, another meeting between the two was possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Victor Cha, head of the Korea program at Washington\u2019s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, doubted North Korea would respond immediately, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think they\u2019re going to bide their time and wait a little bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cha said part of Trump\u2019s motivation for raising North Korea again appeared to be to shift headlines away from his struggles with Iran policy, although he was clearly interested in seeing Kim again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andrew Yeo at Washington\u2019s Brookings Institution said a meeting would be in Kim\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome say that there\u2019s no reason why Kim Jong Un would want to meet Trump because he has Russia and China now in his pocket. But on the flip side, I feel like he has nothing to lose by meeting Trump because he has Russia and China in his pocket,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor Kim, it\u2019s really about reputation. It\u2019s about meeting with the US president again, and so it\u2019s about reputation and status,\u201d Yeo said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of timing and when\u2019s the most optimal timing for Kim Jong Un.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sydney Seiler, a former US National Intelligence Officer for North Korea, said Trump\u2019s latest move was not unprecedented, recalling that he suspended the major Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills in 2018 to encourage dialogue with Kim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOf course, it didn\u2019t gain us that much at the time, but I don\u2019t think we lost that much at the time either,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Web Desk(National Times)- A day after he ordered the United States to scale back military exercises with South Korea and called North Korea \u201cunthreatening and respectful,\u201d US President Donald Trump said on Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had responded to his outreach. Trump\u2019s relationship with Kim has received less White House emphasis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n