Asia

'Excellent Content': Kim Receives Trump's Letter, Vows to Take It Seriously - Reports

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un confirmed that he had received a personal letter from US President Donald Trump, describing the content of the message as "excellent" and vowed that he would think about it "seriously", Reuters reported Sunday, citing North Korean news agency KCNA.
Sputnik

In a report published early Sunday, KCNA did not give further details on the letter but stressed that Kim had described it as "of excellent content". "Kim Jong Un said that he would seriously contemplate the interesting content", according to Reuters, citing KCNA.

Earlier in June, Trump said he had received a "very warm" letter from Kim, hinting that a third US-DPRK summit could take place in the near future. The US president also said that he believes North Korea has "tremendous potential" under Kim's leadership, adding that "something positive will happen".

The situation on the Korean Peninsula has seen significant improvement since last year after Kim boosted ties with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and held a historic first summit with Trump in June.

The first US-North Korean summit in Singapore resulted in an agreement stipulating that Pyongyang would make efforts to promote the complete denuclearization of the peninsula in exchange for the United States and South Korea freezing their military drills. After the Singapore summit, the US president stressed that North Korea no longer posed a nuclear threat to the United States.

After the Hanoi meeting in February, the denuclearization dialogue reportedly reached a deadlock, however, with the United States demanding that North Korea completely dismantle its nuclear facilities for sanctions relief and North Korea seeking a part of the restrictions to be lifted beforehand.

North Korea has been subject to numerous UN sanctions over the past 10 years for its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The sanctions aim at reducing the country's ability to develop its nuclear and missile programs and include a UN Security Council resolution that bans ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum products to the nation.

In January, US National Intelligence Director Dan Coats told the US Senate Intelligence Committee that Pyongyang would likely try to retain its nuclear weapon capabilities, even though North Korea has not conducted any nuclear-capable missile or nuclear tests in over a year.

Discuss