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US President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters in front of the White House regarding issues such as North Korea

US President Donald Trump said on June 11 that he has a “good relationship” with Kim Jong-un and had received a personal letter from the North Korean leader the day before.

It was the first public mention of correspondence between the two leaders since the North Korea-US summit in Hanoi ended without a deal in late February. Coming ahead of a scheduled South Korea-US summit between President Moon Jae-in and Trump in late June, the message is raising questions over whether some breakthrough may be achieved in the current impasse in relations between Pyongyang and Washington.

When asked about North Korea by reporters at the White House while preparing to leave for Iowa that day, Trump said, “I just received a beautiful letter from Kim Jong-un.”

“I think the relationship is very well. But I appreciated the letter,” he added.

Trump declines to disclose specific contents and delivery channel.

Stating repeatedly that he and Kim have a “very good relationship,” Trump said, “Now I can confirm it because of the letter I got yesterday,” indicating that the letter from Kim was received a day earlier on June 10. Trump did not mention how the letter was delivered to him or what the specific content was.

“I can’t show you the letter, obviously,” he told the reporters, adding that it was a “very personal, very warm, very nice letter.”

Responding to claims that Kim’s half-brother Jong-nam was a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) informant who was killed on Kim Jong-un’s orders for that reason, Trump said that he “saw the information about the CIA, with respect to his brother, or half-brother,” adding that “that [assassination] would not happen under my auspices.”

At the same time, Trump said, “I don’t know anything about [whether Kim had his half-brother killed].”

Trump spoke in positive terms about Kim, repeatedly emphasizing North Korea’s economic potential.

“I think that North Korea, under his leadership [. . .] has tremendous potential,” he said.

“The people are great, the land is great, the location is incredible between Russia, China, and South Korea,” he said of North Korea.

“And the one that feels that [potential] more than anybody is Kim Jong-un. He gets it. He totally gets it,” he continued.

Speaking of his time in office, Trump also noted, “[There has been] no nuclear testing [by North Korea]. No major missile testing. Nothing like when I first got here. When I first got here, it was a bad mess.”

“We have a very good relationship together,” he added of Kim.

He also said, “I think that something will happen that’s going to be very positive.”

“But in the meantime, we have our hostages back. The remains [of US soldiers] keep coming back,” he continued.

On the prospects for a third summit with Kim, Trump signaled that he would need to observe the situation more closely.

“[I]t could happen, but I want to bring it further down the line,” he said.

“In the meantime, he’s kept his word,” he added of Kim. “There’s no nuclear testing, there’s no large, you know, long-range missiles going up.”

“The only thing he sent up were very short-term, short-range [missiles],” he said.

“But he’s kept his word to me; that’s very important,” he continued. His message was read as showing his trust in Kim while demanding bolder action toward denuclearization from Pyongyang before a third summit happens.

In another event organized the same day by the Wall Street Journal, White House National Security Advisor John Bolton said that a third North Korea-US summit was “entirely possible.”

“Really, Kim Jong-un holds the key,” he said.

“We are ready when they [the North Koreans] are,” he also said, adding that North Korea would have to “give up the pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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