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Howard X and Dennis Alan, impersonators for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump, pose for a photo in Osaka, Japan, on June 26, ahead of the G20 summit. (Reuters/Yonhap News)
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US president says summit will happen “at some point”
US President Donald Trump hinted that there was mention of a third North Korea-US summit summit in the personal letter he recently received from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. When reporters asked him about the letter he received from Kim at the White House on June 25, Trump responded by saying “Just a nice letter back and forth. It was my birthday [June 14], as you know, last week. He wrote me a beautiful letter [. . .] just two friendly letters. We get along very well.” When asked by reporters whether Kim had mentioned another meeting, Trump simply said “Maybe there was. But we — you know, at some point, we’ll do that. [We are] getting along very well.” It is difficult to discern from Trump’s statements, however, whether the letters the two leaders exchanged had any specific mention of a third North Korea-US summit, or which letter actually had mentioned such a proposal. That being said, there appears to be an attempt by both sides to create a friendly atmosphere as the opportunity to restart US-North Korean talks has appeared in advance of Trump’s visit to South Korea on June 29-30. Trump did mention that a North Korea-US summit will happen “at some point,” which suggests that the US will carefully watch to see if there are changes in North Korea’s stance toward denuclearization. When the White House made public the fact that Kim had sent a letter to Trump on June 11, Trump remarked that a third North Korea-US summit “could happen, but I want to bring it further down the line.” During his remarks to reporters on June 25, Trump talked about his successes with North Korea, including that North Korea had stopped testing nuclear weapons and launching missiles, that the country had released American hostages, and that it had returned the remains of US soldiers. “The relationship is a far different relationship than it was during the Obama years, where [. . .] you were going to end up with a war,” Trump said. By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
