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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump shake hands during their summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019. `

Less than one day after US President Donald Trump said he’d received a “nice note” from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang issued a rebuttal.

The rebuttal appeared in a statement released on Apr. 20 and credited to the “room chief of news for foreign service” in the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s Department of Press and Information.

“US media on April 18 quoted the US president as saying to reporters that he received a ‘good letter’ from the supreme leadership of the DPRK,” the statement said.

“He could have [been referring] to the personal letters that had been exchanged in the past; we are not sure. But there was no letter addressed recently to the US president by the supreme leadership of the DPRK.”

The statement made clear that Pyongyang was unhappy with Trump’s remarks. “We are about to look into the matter to see if the US leadership seeks anything in feeding the ungrounded story into the media. The relations between the top leaders of the DPRK and the US are not an issue to be taken up just for diversion nor [should it] be misused for [. . .] selfish purposes.”

Trump made his remarks about the note during a briefing of the White House’s COVID-19 task force on Apr. 18. He added that he has “a good relationship” with Kim and claimed that, if he hadn’t been elected president, the US would “be at war with North Korea.”

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer, and Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]