N Korea says it will resume US talks
North Korea said yesterday it had received Donald Trump’s letter wishing a happy birthday to leader Kim Jong Un, but warned it would only return to nuclear talks if Washington fully accepts its demands.
The US president and Kim have held three meetings since June 2018 but negotiations over denuclearisation have been largely deadlocked since the breakup of a summit in Hanoi last February.
Before the collapse of that meeting, Trump had said that he and Kim had an excellent relationship -- and had even “fallen in love”.
Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s foreign ministry adviser, said yesterday that Trump’s congratulatory letter to Kim had arrived in the isolated state directly from the United States.
“As acknowledged by the world, it is true that the personal relations between (Kim Jong Un) and President Trump are not bad,” he said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.
However, it would be “absent-minded” to expect Pyongyang to resume dialogue because of that warm personal relationship, the statement continued.
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