Washington: US President Donald Trump said Saturday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had apologized over a recent spate of missile tests and wanted to resume denuclearization talks as soon as US-South Korean military exercises end.



Trump tweeted that Kim made these statements in a letter to him and that he looks "forward to seeing Kim Jong Un in the not too distant future!"

"In a letter to me sent by Kim Jong Un, he stated, very nicely, that he would like to meet and start negotiations as soon as the joint U.S./South Korea joint exercise are over," Trump wrote.

"It was a long letter, much of it complaining about the ridiculous and expensive exercises. It was also a small apology for testing the short range missiles, and that this testing would stop when the exercises end," Trump said. </s> US President Donald Trump said Saturday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants to resume denuclearization talks after US-South Korean war games end.

Trump tweeted that in a letter to him, Kim apologized for a recent spate of missile tests, the latest of which came at daybreak Saturday Korean time, and said they were to protest these joint military drills.

Trump said he looks “forward to seeing Kim Jong Un in the not too distant future!”

“In a letter to me sent by Kim Jong Un, he stated, very nicely, that he would like to meet and start negotiations as soon as the joint U.S./South Korea joint exercise are over,” Trump wrote.

The exercises began Monday and are due to last another week. North Korea has said the recent short-range missile tests are designed to protest the war games.

On Saturday, Trump again seemed to side with Kim by criticizing the exercises, which are a cornerstone of US-South Korean military cooperation.

“It was a long letter, much of it complaining about the ridiculous and expensive exercises. It was also a small apology for testing the short range missiles, and that this testing would stop when the exercises end,” Trump said.

Trump has appeared determined to secure a denuclearization agreement with North Korea ahead of next year’s US presidential elections, despite faltering talks since he first met Kim in a historic ice-breaking summit in Singapore in June 2018.

Even after their abortive second summit in February, Trump has been reluctant to criticize the North Korean leader.

Trump has repeatedly talked up his close personal relationship with Kim, as his administration seeks to resume the stalled denuclearisation talks with the North.

On Friday he described the message he got from Kim as “a very beautiful letter.”

In June he offered an olive branch by meeting Kim in the Panmunjon truce village in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, becoming the first sitting US president ever to step inside the North.

On Friday, Trump said the missile launches were not important.

“I’ll say it again. There have been no nuclear tests. The missile tests have all been short-range. No ballistic missile tests, no long-range missiles,” Trump said.

Defence officials in Seoul said what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles were fired at daybreak Saturday from near the northeastern city of Hamhung, flying 400 kilometres (250 miles) before splashing down in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan.

Washington and Seoul pledged in March to scale down their joint drills in an effort to foster denuclearisation talks with Pyongyang.

In contrast to Trump’s dismissal of the missile launches, others in the US administration have voiced opposition to them.

After Pyongyang’s fourth launch early this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington was ready to resume talks, but that the target of the “full, final denuclearisation of North Korea” had not changed.

A senior State Department official who refused to be named told journalists last week that the missile tests were an impediment to peace.

“The missile launches, any kind of provocations, are not helpful to advancing the cause of diplomacy,” the official said. </s> BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. — President Donald Trump said Saturday that North Korea's Kim Jong Un wants to meet once again to "start negotiations" after joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises end. He also said Kim apologized for the flurry of recent short-range missile tests that has rattled U.S. allies in the region.

Trump is tweeting more details from the "beautiful" three-page letter he told reporters on Friday that he'd received from Kim. Trump, who is on vacation at his golf club in New Jersey, said Kim spent much of his letter complaining about "the ridiculous and expensive exercises," which North Korea sees as a threat.

He said Kim offered him "a small apology" for the recent tests and assured him "that this testing would stop when the exercises end." North Korea on Saturday fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, according to South Korea's military — the fifth round of launches in less than three weeks.

"I look forward to seeing Kim Jong Un in the not too distant future!" Trump wrote.

The two leaders have met three times — in Singapore, Hanoi and at the Korean Demilitarized Zone — but critics say Trump has received few concessions in the standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons program in exchange for the meetings.

At their second summit in Vietnam in February, Trump rejected Kim's demand for widespread sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling the North's main nuclear complex, a partial disarmament step.

The U.S. and South Korea have scaled down their major military exercises since Trump and Kim's first summit in June 2018. But the North insists even the downsized drills violate agreements between Kim and Trump and compel it to "develop, test and deploy the powerful physical means essential for national defense."

When they last met in June of this year, Trump and Kim agreed to resume working-level nuclear talks that have been stalled since February, but there have been no known meetings between the two sides since then. </s> President Trump said Friday he has received a “beautiful” letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the midst of renewed tensions.

“It was a very positive letter,” Mr. Trump said of the three-page, handwritten note. “I think we’ll have another meeting. He really wrote a beautiful letter. Maybe I’ll release the results of the letter, but it was very positive.”

Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House that the believes he and Mr. Kim will have another meeting. The letter hand-delivered Thursday comes after North Korea has launched a series of short-range missile tests.

Mr. Kim has conducted the tests in an apparent response to renewed joint military exercises by the U.S. and South Korea.

The president and Mr. Kim have held two summits aimed at denuclearizing North Korea, and they held an impromptu meeting this summer at the demilitarized zone between the North and South.

Mr. Trump did reveal that Mr. Kim conveyed his unhappiness about the joint military exercises in South Korea.

“He wasn’t happy with the war games, it’s a very small testing that we did,” Mr. Trump said. “He put that in the letter. I don’t like it, either.”

But the president said he agreed to the exercises because they involve South Korean forces taking over certain responsibilities from the U.S. military in the region.

“In the meantime, I say it again, there have been no nuclear tests,” he said of the North. “The missile tests have all been short-range, no ballistic missile tests, no long-range missiles.” </s> Trump is claiming that North Korea has agreed to “denuclearization” before his potential meeting with Kim, but that’s not the case.

FILE - This combination of two file photos shows U.S. President Donald Trump, left, speaking in the State Dining Room of the White House, in Washington on Feb. 26, 2018, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending in the party congress in Pyongyang, North Korea on May 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Wong Maye-E, File)

President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed North Korea has agreed to “denuclearization” before his potential meeting with Kim Jong Un. But that’s not the case.

North Korea said Friday it would suspend nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches ahead of summits with the U.S. and South Korea. Kim also said a nuclear test site would be closed and “dismantled” now that the country has learned how to make nuclear weapons and mount warheads on ballistic rockets.

But the North has stopped short of saying it has any intention of abandoning its nuclear arsenal, with Kim making clear that nukes remain a “treasured sword.”

Trump nonetheless tweeted Sunday that the North has “agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!”

Being committed to the concept of denuclearization, however, is not the same as agreeing to it, as Trump claims.

South Korea, which is set to meet with North Korea later this week, has said Kim has expressed genuine interest in dealing away his nuclear weapons. But the North for decades has been pushing a concept of “denuclearization” that bears no resemblance to the American definition, vowing to pursue nuclear development unless Washington removes its troops from the Korean Peninsula and the nuclear umbrella defending South Korea and Japan.

South Korea’s president has said Kim isn’t asking for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula as a condition for abandoning his nuclear weapons. If true, that would seem to remove a major sticking point to a potential disarmament deal.

But that still doesn’t address a North Korean arsenal that now includes purported thermonuclear warheads and developmental ICBMs developed during a decadeslong cycle of crises, stalemates and broken promises.

Trump agreed to meet with Kim after an invitation was delivered by a South Korean delegation that had just returned from Pyongyang.

“I told President Trump that in our meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he’s committed to denuclearization,” South Korea’s national security adviser later told reporters on the White House driveway. “Kim pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests.”

A place and date have yet to be set, but Trump’s pick to be the next secretary of state, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, travelled to North Korea on Easter weekend to lay the groundwork for the meeting. Trump has called the talks a success, but it’s unclear exactly what was agreed to, if anything, as a condition for the leader-to-leader talks.

“Look, this is a great public relations effort by Kim Jong-un. And I think people recognize that,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” But asked whether be believed the North would denuclearize, Corker offered caution.

“Well, I don’t think he said anything about denuclearizing on the front end necessarily,” he said.

He added on ABC’s “This Week” that it’s unrealistic to think that “somebody’s going to go in and charm” Kim out of keeping his nuclear weapons.

“Is it realistic that he’s just willy-nilly going to do that? Absolutely not,” Corker said. “But, you know, progress can be made, freezing the program, who knows what he’s — what his ambitions are as it relates to South Korea.”

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, was equally as skeptical on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” arguing that North Korea’s recent statements are easily reversible and that no announcement has been made about short- or medium-range ballistic missiles that threaten South Korea and Japan.

“Well, I think this announcement on Friday is better than continued testing, but it’s not much better than that,” he said. “But I do think they show that the president has put Kim Jong Un on the wrong foot for the first time.”

Asked what denuclearization means to both sides, White House Legislative Director Marc Short said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that there needs to be a sit-down meeting to make sure everyone’s on the same page.

“But I think from our perspective, it means full denuclearization,” he said. “No longer having nuclear weapons that can be used in warfare against any of our allies.”

Still, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, told CBS that if the president goes through with the meeting, it’s “very important” that it “goes well and that there is an ability to put together some terms of an agreement that might exist.”

“The question,” she said, “is whether it lasts or not. And of course the reputation of the North Koreans has been that they don’t necessarily keep their agreements.”

Related: Trump could bail on meeting with Kim

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. </s> U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed North Korea has agreed to "denuclearization" before his potential meeting with Kim Jong Un. But that's not the case.

North Korea said Friday it would suspend nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches ahead of summits with the U.S. and South Korea. Kim also said a nuclear test site would be closed and "dismantled" now that the country has learned how to make nuclear weapons and mount warheads on ballistic rockets.

But the North has stopped short of saying it has any intention of abandoning its nuclear arsenal, with Kim making clear that nukes remain a "treasured sword."

Trump nonetheless tweeted Sunday that the North has "agreed to denuclearization (so great for World), site closure, & no more testing!"

Being committed to the concept of denuclearization, however, is not the same as agreeing to it, as Trump claims.

South Korea, which is set to meet with North Korea later this week, has said Kim has expressed genuine interest in dealing away his nuclear weapons. But the North for decades has been pushing a concept of "denuclearization" that bears no resemblance to the American definition, vowing to pursue nuclear development unless Washington removes its troops from the Korean Peninsula and the nuclear umbrella defending South Korea and Japan.

South Korea's president has said Kim isn't asking for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula as a condition for abandoning his nuclear weapons. If true, that would seem to remove a major sticking point to a potential disarmament deal.

But that still doesn't address a North Korean arsenal that now includes purported thermonuclear warheads and developmental ICBMs developed during a decadeslong cycle of crises, stalemates and broken promises.

Trump agreed to meet with Kim after an invitation was delivered by a South Korean delegation that had just returned from Pyongyang.

"I told President Trump that in our meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he's committed to denuclearization," South Korea's national security adviser later told reporters on the White House driveway. "Kim pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests."

A place and date have yet to be set, but Trump's pick to be the next secretary of state, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, traveled to North Korea on Easter weekend to lay the groundwork for the meeting. Trump has called the talks a success, but it's unclear exactly what was agreed to, if anything, as a condition for the leader-to-leader talks.

"Look, this is a great public relations effort by Kim Jong-un. And I think people recognize that," Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." But asked whether be believed the North would denuclearize, Corker offered caution.

"Well, I don't think he said anything about denuclearizing on the front end necessarily," he said.

He added on ABC's "This Week" that it's unrealistic to think that "somebody's going to go in and charm" Kim out of keeping his nuclear weapons.

"Is it realistic that he's just willy-nilly going to do that? Absolutely not," Corker said. "But, you know, progress can be made, freezing the program, who knows what he's — what his ambitions are as it relates to South Korea."

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, was equally as skeptical on CBS' "Face the Nation," arguing that North Korea's recent statements are easily reversible and that no announcement has been made about short- or medium-range ballistic missiles that threaten South Korea and Japan.

"Well, I think this announcement on Friday is better than continued testing, but it's not much better than that," he said. "But I do think they show that the president has put Kim Jong Un on the wrong foot for the first time."

Asked what denuclearization means to both sides, White House Legislative Director Marc Short said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that there needs to be a sit-down meeting to make sure everyone's on the same page.

"But I think from our perspective, it means full denuclearization," he said. "No longer having nuclear weapons that can be used in warfare against any of our allies."

Still, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, told CBS that if the president goes through with the meeting, it's "very important" that it "goes well and that there is an ability to put together some terms of an agreement that might exist."

"The question," she said, "is whether it lasts or not. And of course the reputation of the North Koreans has been that they don't necessarily keep their agreements." </s> A carnival float depicting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump at the traditional "Rosenmontag" Rose Monday carnival parade in Mainz, Germany, February 12, 2018. Source: Reuters/Ralph Orlowski

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after an invitation from Kim was delivered to the White House by a South Korean envoy on Friday. The meeting will be the first time in a sitting US president has met with his North Korean counterpart.

Trump said on Twitter that there must be no missile testing by Pyongyang during the time leading to and during the talks that have been scheduled for May.

“Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached,” the president said.



 SEE ALSO: Kim Jong Un suggests Korean summit to pursue reunification



A senior White House official made clear that the US will settle for nothing less than the permanent denuclearization of North Korea, according to Reuters.

At an announcement at the White House on Friday, South Korea’s National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong told reporters Kim has committed to “denuclearization” and to suspending nuclear or missile tests.

The 10-man South Korean delegation met with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang on Monday. Talks are a sign of thawing relationship between the Korea’s after an olive branch was offered at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

A meeting between Kim and Trump, who have exchanged bellicose insults in the past year that have raised fear of war, would be a major turnaround after a year in which North Korea has carried out a battery of tests aimed at developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.

“I told him (Trump) that in our meeting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that he’s committed to denuclearization,” Chung said. “Kim pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests.”

SEE ALSO: How informal diplomacy might just get the Koreas to the negotiating table



“He expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible,” he said. “President Trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet Kim Jong Un by May to achieve denuclearization.”

Earlier Thursday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that though “talks about talks” might be possible with Pyongyang, denuclearization negotiations were likely a long way off.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said in response to the announcement in Washington that North Korea must commit to abandoning nuclear development completely in order for meaningful talks to take place with Pyongyang. </s> The president of the United States on Thursday agreed to meet with North Korea's leader, saying that he would do so by May, according to South Korean officials in Washington.

To start the talks with Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un offered the suspension of his nuclear and ballistic missile programs, South Korean representatives said in Washington.

The head of South Korea's National Security Office, Chung Eui-yong, who led Seoul's delegation to Washington, delivered to Trump a letter which Kim had handed to him on Monday during their meeting in Pyongyang.

"President Trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet Kim Jong-un by May to achieve permanent denuclearization," Chung Eui-yong told reporters.

"Along with President Trump," the South Korean envoy added, "we are optimistic about continuing a diplomatic process to prove the possibility of a peaceful resolution."

Chung also said that South Korea, the US and the rest of the allies will maintain diplomatic and economic "pressure" until North Korea "matches its words with concrete actions."

Before coming to Washington on Thursday, Chung Eui-yong had been in Pyongyang on Monday to meet with Kim, who "expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible."

The North Korean leader also "pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests," and said that he "is committed to denuclearization."

Kim Jong-un and Chung Eui-yong also agreed the holding of a meeting between the North Korean leader and the South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the border between the two Koreas in April. EFE </s> WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that he received a "beautiful" three-page letter from Kim Jong Un and predicted that the two leaders would have more talks to try resolving the standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

Trump has said he's not bothered by the flurry of missiles that Kim has launched in recent days, rattling U.S. allies in the region. The president said they were all short-range missiles and reiterated that North Korea has never broken its pledge to pause nuclear tests.

Trump said Kim told him in the letter that he was upset about recent U.S.-South Korea military exercises, which North Korea sees as a threat.

The two leaders have met three times — in Singapore, Hanoi and the Korean Demilitarized Zone late last month — but no new talks have been scheduled. At their second meeting in Vietnam in February, Trump rejected Kim's demand for widespread sanctions relief in return for dismantling the North's main nuclear complex, a partial disarmament step.

RELATED: North Korea fires presumed ballistic missiles as talks with US stall

FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi. Trump said he walked away from his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un because Kim demanded the U.S. lift all of its sanctions, a claim that North Korea's delegation called a rare news conference in the middle of the night to deny. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)

Trump said he'd received the letter on Thursday. "It was hand-delivered. It wasn't touched by anybody," Trump told reporters on Friday at the White House.

"It was a very positive letter. I think we'll have another meeting. He really wrote a beautiful, three-page letter ... a really beautiful letter."
In a letter sent by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to U.S. President Donald Trump, Kim apologizes for the testing of short-range missiles. Trump says he expects to meet Kim soon and see a denuclearized North Korea as "one of the most successful countries in the world".