hankyoreh

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump during their summit in Hanoi on Feb. 28.

US President Donald Trump revealed on June 11 that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had sent him a personal letter around the one-year anniversary of their summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018. This indicates that the two leaders’ trust and commitment to dialogue continues even after their second summit in Hanoi in late February ended without yielding results. Coming ahead of a scheduled South Korea-US summit later this month, the news has observers watching to see if a way out of the current North Korea-US impasse can be found.

Responding to questions from reporters at the White House on the possibility of him meeting with Kim during his South Korea visit later this month, Trump said he had “just received a beautiful letter from Kim Jong-un.”

“I think the relationship is very well. But I appreciated the letter,” he added. Without mentioning the content of the correspondence or how it was delivered, Trump described it as a “very personal, very warm, very nice letter.”

Trump went on to say, “I think North Korea has tremendous potential. And the one that feels that more than anybody is Kim Jong-un.”

“He totally gets it,” he added.

Speaking of his time in office, Trump said, “[There has been] no nuclear testing. No major missile testing. [. . .] When I first got here, it was a bad mess.”

“I think that something will happen that’s going to be very positive,” he predicted.

It was the first public mention of correspondence between North Korea and the US – at the head of state level, no less – since the Hanoi summit ended without a deal. Since that summit, Pyongyang and Washington have respectively demanded a “change in calculations” and “complete denuclearization,” waging a battle of nerves with North Korea’s short-range missile launches in early May and the US’ announcement of its seizure of a North Korean cargo vessel. The letter coming on the first anniversary of the June 12 summit is a sign that trust remains between the two leaders, hinting at the possibility that momentum for top-down dialogue could be revived.

Commenting on Kim’s letter at a June 12 seminar organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Sejong Institute’s Center for American Studies, Moon Chung-in, the special presidential advisor for unification, foreign affairs and national security, said, “If you consider the absence of any dialogue or contact to date, I think this means new possibilities have opened up between North Korea and the US.”

Cho Sung-ryul, a research consultant for the Institute for National Security Strategy, told the Hankyoreh that Kim appears likely to have sent a message honoring the significance of the June 12 summit and expressing his commitment to dialogue and denuclearization in basic terms.

“As a message that the momentum for negotiations is being sustained, it’s a positive signal,” Cho said.

But some time will likely be needed for the two sides to bridge their differences on denuclearization and corresponding measures. When asked by reporters about the possibility of a third North Korea-US summit, Trump replied, “It could happen, but I want to bring it further down the line.” His message was read as signaling Washington’s insistence that Pyongyang answer its “big deal” proposal with bolder steps toward denuclearization. In an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal, White House National Security Advisor John Bolton seemed to send the ball back to North Korea’s court, saying a third summit was “entirely possible.”

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

Meanwhile, North Korea shows no signs of shifting from its past insistence on exchanging dismantlement of its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon for relief from key sanctions. Hong Min, director of the North Korea research office at the Korea Institute for National Unification, noted that Pyongyang “has indicated that it does not intend to present itself as begging for things from the US.”

“I suspect that in his letter, Kim Jong-un avoided political messages about his hopes for holding a summit in the near future and focused on their very personal closeness,” Hong said.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent, and Kim Ji-eun and Noh Ji-won, staff reporters

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