North Korea has publicly denied suggestions of direct contact between its leader, Kim Jong Un, and U.S. President Donald Trump, and has downplayed Washington's move to reduce the scope of joint military exercises with South Korea.
In a statement carried by state-run news agency KCNA, Kim Yo Jong - the sister of North Korea's leader - affirmed that the personal rapport between Kim Jong Un and Trump is unchanged and remains "excellent." At the same time, she said, Washington's overall hostile posture toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has not been altered.
The remarks came after Trump said on Monday that Kim had replied to requests for a conversation between the two leaders. The U.S. president also instructed the Pentagon on Sunday to curtail joint drills with South Korea. According to Trump, that decision reflected criticism of the ally's lack of support for the ongoing war in Iran and concern that the exercises were sending an improper signal toward North Korea.
Kim Yo Jong dismissed the U.S. decision to scale back the U.S.-South Korea exercises as unimportant, saying Pyongyang was not interested and did not deem it worthy of comment. She argued that any reduction in scale or duration of the drills did not change what she described as their provocative and aggressive nature.
"If the US side is trying to tout its decision as some kind of an 'act of goodwill,' they will not get the response that they want," Kim said in the statement published in Korean.
Trump has met Kim Jong Un on three occasions during his first term, though those meetings did not yield a diplomatic breakthrough. The U.S. president has repeatedly highlighted his personal rapport with the North Korean leader.
Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is urging aides to set up a meeting with Kim as early as this fall to revive direct diplomacy. The Journal said Trump has privately explored arranging a face-to-face encounter during his next trip to Asia, likely in November, when he is expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China. Trump and Kim previously met in person in 2018 in Singapore.
Context and implications
The public rebuke from Pyongyang reiterates the regime's view that tactical changes to military drills do not equate to a shift in overall U.S. policy toward the North. Kim Yo Jong's statement underscores North Korea's insistence that any reduction in exercises does not alleviate what it sees as provocative behavior.