Trump open to dialogue with Kim Jong Un, White House says
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(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump remains open to communications with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the White House said in its latest comments expressing willingness to resume dialogue with the nuclear-armed North, despite little signal from Kim seeking engagement.
“The President remains receptive to correspondence with Kim Jong Un and he’d like to see the progress that was made at that summit in Singapore,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday when asked about a media report that said Trump tried to send a letter to Kim but was rebuffed.
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The renewed call for dialogue comes as US ally South Korea seeks to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula following the inauguration of new liberal President Lee Jae-myung last week. In one of the first conciliatory steps since Lee’s tenure began, South Korea suspended the broadcast of loudspeakers criticizing the Kim regime near the border this week.
In a rare de-escalatory move, North Korea also stopped blasting odd noises at the border the following day, which have been disturbing South Korean residents nearby, the South Korean military said Thursday.
Trump has touted what he called good relations with Kim since he was on the campaign trail, but the North Korean leader has said past talks with the US only confirmed Washington’s “unchangeable” hostility toward Pyongyang.
The region now faces a different geopolitical environment since the two leaders last met in Hanoi in 2019, with Kim more emboldened after emerging as a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine.
The International Atomic Energy Agency and weapons experts said this week North Korea might have built a new uranium enrichment facility at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex to ramp up the country’s ability to produce nuclear weapons. Kim has vowed to strengthen the country’s nuclear capabilities “without limit” in response to what he described as growing threats from the US and its allies in the region.
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