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US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un

With North Korea and the US still unable to find a breakthrough in their talks, “correspondence diplomacy” between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump has resumed. Exchanging personal letters has brought the two leaders back together during each crisis, and it will be interesting to see whether the letters can once again serve as a catalyst for breaking through the deadlock.

"A personal letter [. . .] is being delivered to me from Kim Jong-un that was handed at the border yesterday," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sept. 7. His remarks imply that the personal letter was conveyed by the North Koreans to the Americans at Panmunjom.

The letter could have been delivered during a meeting between North Korea and American generals that was held at Panmunjom on Sept. 7 to discuss the issue of recovering the remains of more POW/MIA. But considering that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned to the US on Sept. 7 following a trip to India and Pakistan, it is unclear where or in what manner the letter was conveyed to him. On Sept. 8, an official at the US State Department confirmed to CNN and other media organizations that Kim’s letter to Trump had been received by Pompeo.

Trump clearly expects a lot from Kim’s letter, which he said is “going to be a positive letter,” and made a point of expressing the warmth he feels for Kim. “We have to start [. . .] that process. North Korea [. . .] started off very rough. In the meantime, we have our hostages [Americans detained in North Korea] back. I’ve said a hundred times: no missiles, no rockets, no nuclear testing,” Trump said.

“Let’s see what happens,” Trump said, noting that Kim had told South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s special delegation to North Korea that he respects Trump and that he wanted to “make this deal and denuclearize” during Trump’s term in office. For now, Trump appeared to be positively assessing Kim’s commitment to denuclearization and hinting at his willingness to continue dialogue.

Kim’s letter was delivered as the mood shifts toward dialogue following the visit to Pyongyang on Sept. 5 by Moon’s special delegation while North Korea-US negotiations were at an impasse over denuclearization and the end-of-war declaration, which resulted in the cancellation on Aug. 24 of Pompeo’s trip to North Korea. It appears that Kim’s letter emphasized his unchanging trust in Trump and his commitment to denuclearization during Trump’s term in office, just as Kim told the special delegation.

Kim may also have proposed holding a second summit with Trump in order to discuss a roadmap for denuclearization and the normalization of North Korea-US relations while asking for a fresh attempt to arrange what would be Pompeo’s fourth trip to North Korea.

Trump and Kim’s personal correspondence has hitherto functioned as a type of “top-down” diplomacy that has overcome deadlocks in dialogue and internal pessimism and resistance from hardliners. This is the fourth letter that Kim has sent Trump. After Trump’s May 24 announcement of the cancellation of the North Korea-US summit, which was supposed to be held in Singapore on June 12, Kim sent Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and director of the WPK United Front Department, to the White House on June 1 bearing a personal letter.

This turned out to be an opportunity for reviving the summit. And when Pompeo paid his third visit to North Korea in July, Kim had Pompeo deliver a letter to Trump instead of meeting with Pompeo in person. Kim sent another letter when the remains of US service members who died during the Korean War were repatriated to the US at the beginning of August. Trump has publicly announced the delivery of each of these letters and expressed his gratitude to Kim.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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