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US President Donald Trump‘s tweet thanking North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for his "unwavering faith" on Sept. 6

After presenting a timeline for denuclearization to a South Korean special delegation to Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has now sent a personal correspondence to US President Donald Trump. The letter immediately elicited a welcoming response from Trump. By exercising restraint in its military parade on Sept. 9, North Korea also made clear it doesn’t want to provoke the US.

This is focusing attention on whether the favorable winds that have been blowing since the special delegation’s visit to North Korea will breathe new life into the North Korea-US denuclearization talks.

Immediately after Kim told the special envoy delegation that he intends to denuclearize before the end of Trump’s first term as president, Trump expressed his gratitude, and a day later, he was clearly excited to announce that he and Kim are exchanging personal correspondence. This is the fourth personal letter from Kim that has been announced publicly. Trump has affirmed his trust in Kim by sending a reply to each letter.

The “correspondence diplomacy” between Kim and Trump has created leverage for putting the negotiations back on track every time they’ve been derailed. That’s why there’s growing interest in the question of whether this letter will serve as a turning point for the denuclearization talks, which have been at a standstill for several months now.

The fact that North Korea held its Sept. 9 military parade on the same scale as previous years can also be regarded as a positive sign for resuming North Korea-US dialogue. This parade did not feature any strategic missiles, such as the intercontinental ballistic missile that appeared in a military parade this past February celebrating the establishment of the North Korean military.

The declaration of a timeline for denuclearization, along with the delivery of a personal letter and the understatement of the military parade, all appear to show that the North is strongly committed to resuming denuclearization talks.

Now is the time for Trump to respond with corresponding action. Most critical is quickly sending Pompeo back to North Korea. Considering that Kim has already unveiled a timeframe for achieving denuclearization, it shouldn’t be hard for the US, if it makes up its mind, to create the conditions for swapping an end-of-war declaration with the initial steps toward denuclearization.

The South Korean government would like Pompeo’s visit to North Korea to occur before the third inter-Korean summit. The North Korea-US negotiations have to accelerate in order to speed up inter-Korean relations. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has stated that his goal is making irreversible progress toward denuclearization by the end of the year. Given the difficulties Trump is facing in domestic politics, he needs to bring about major change before the midterm elections in November. Seoul needs to mobilize all available channels in order to persuade the US to reopen negotiations with the North.

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