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An image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un overseeing an exercise by the Air and Anti-Aircraft Force of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) published by the Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 18.

In a tweet on Nov. 17, US President Donald Trump urged North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to “act quickly [and] get the deal done,” hinting at the possibility of a third North Korea-US summit. The very next day, Kim Kye-gwan, advisor to North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, responded by welcoming the tweet as “indicative of another DPRK [North Korea]-US summit” while strongly urging the US to “drop its hostile policy” toward the North.

After South Korea and the US announced that they would postpone a joint air exercise scheduled for this month, North Korea and the US have been wrestling over whether to resume dialogue.

In a statement released by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Nov. 18, Kim Kye-gwan said that he interpreted Trump’s tweet the previous day as signifying “another DPRK-US summit” and said that “if the US truly wants to keep [. . .] dialogue with the DPRK, it had better make a bold decision to drop its hostile policy towards the DPRK.” These remarks are interpreted as pushing the US for a change of attitude as the two sides make contact behind closed doors to explore the possibility of holding more working-level talks before the end of the year.

“Three rounds of DPRK-US summit meetings and talks [have been] held since June last year, but no particular improvement has been achieved in the DPRK-US relations. And the US only seeks to [buy] time, pretending it has made progress in settling the issue of the Korean Peninsula,” Kim said in his statement.

“We are no longer interested in such talks that bring nothing to us. As we have got nothing in return, we will no longer gift the US president with something he can boast of, but get compensation for the successes that President Trump is proud of as his administrative achievements.”

The day before, Trump posted a tweet that was directed at Kim Jong-un. “I am the only one who can get you where you have to be. You should act quickly, get the deal done. See you soon!”

Trump tweeted his personal appeal for Kim to return to the talks shortly after the top defense officials from South Korea and the US unexpectedly announced that this year’s joint air exercise was being postponed with the goal of providing military support for diplomatic efforts, including the North Korea-US denuclearization talks. Trump’s “see you soon” remark also suggests that he and Kim might hold a third summit, though he didn’t specify the timeframe in his tweet.

Trump’s tweet can be regarded as a personal appeal for North Korea to quickly return to dialogue now that the US has made the goodwill gesture of postponing a joint exercise with South Korea. North Korea has long exhibited extreme antipathy for such exercises.

While North Korea and the US’ working-level negotiations have been on hold following a meeting in Stockholm at the beginning of last month, the likelihood of the talks resuming before the end of the year appears to be increasing. But before the two sides can sit down together, there will need to be an attitude change. US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper emphasized that the US had decided to postpone its joint exercise with South Korea “as an act of goodwill to contribute to an environment conducive to diplomacy and the advancement of a peace” while calling on North Korea to demonstrate corresponding goodwill.

But since North Korea is demanding that the complete reversal of the US’ policy of hostility toward the North, including sanctions, be a major part of the agenda of talks, it remains uncertain whether the delay of the joint exercise and the tweet by Trump will be enough to bring the North Koreans back to the table for talks.

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter, and Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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