hankyoreh

US President Donald Trump (Getty Images)

“I gave [North Korean leader Kim Jong-un] a very direct number. He can now call me if he has any difficulties, [or] I can call him.”

US President Donald Trump’s remarks to reporters on June 15 are raising questions about how telephone calls might actually take place between him and Kim.

“I’m going to be actually calling North Korea,” Trump said of the then-upcoming Father’s Day holiday on June 17. The calls between two leaders of hostile states are seen as highly unusual.

In technical terms, telephone conversations between the North Korean and US leaders are quite feasible. Even in North Korea, international calls can be made by landline, wireless, or satellite means. The US company AT&T has provided international calling services between the US and North Korea since 1995. In 2001, North Korea joined the international satellite communications provider Intelsat. Foreign journalists visiting North Korea to observe the shutdown of the Punggye Village nuclear test site last month were able to call home by switching out their USIM chips. But most international calls in North Korea are reportedly made via satellite – which diminishes call quality – and monitored by the North Korean Ministry of State Security. Calls between Kim and Trump would also be possible via landline, mobile, or satellite.

The “very direct number” Trump reported giving to Kim likely refers to a landline connecting to the White House, though some have speculated it could even be a mobile number. A hotline is seen as an unlikely option so soon after the two leaders’ summit, as it would require the physical construction of a dedicated line between Trump and Kim’s offices that would not be vulnerable to wiretapping. Instead, it appears more likely to be a connection between situation rooms, as with typical telephone calls between heads of state.

“I think the calls between North Korea and the US may be made through links between situation room staff, just as the Blue House and White House do when they call the other side’s situation room and set a date for the leaders to speak to each other,” a former official closely acquainted with diplomatic matters told The Hankyoreh.

In a report, Yonhap News quoted US government officials as saying Trump and Kim had respectively summoned White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee first vice director (and Kim’s younger sister) Kim Yo-jong to the venue of their one-on-one meeting at the Capella Hotel in Singapore on June 12 and had them trade the numbers.

A former senior official suggested Trump’s reference to “giving a direct number” may have been “intended to show that the two are in close communication rather than meaning that they will be exchanging calls over a hotline.”

Trump may also have provided Kim with his personal mobile number – as he did with the leaders of Canada and other countries early on in his term. But the likelihood of this is seen as slim due to security concerns. The US IT magazine Wired commented, “[I]f the president really did give his personal number to Kim Jong Un, he would also have created a major national security exposure in the process.”

By Hwang Joon-bum, Kim Ji-eun and Park Tae-woo, staff reporters

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