President Trump said Wednesday that he plans to meet with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un sometime this year, though Pyongyang has not yet confirmed that Kim is interested in talks.
“I get along with him well,” Trump said, according to The Washington Post. “And you know what? The fact that I get along with him, that’s a very good thing, not a bad thing.”
The president also said that North Korea possesses “57 powerful nuclear weapons,” which aligns with estimates that have put Pyongyang’s arsenal somewhere around 60 warheads.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of Kim Jong Un, said on Wednesday that she was unaware of any communications between her brother and Trump, but did say the two leaders “still have an excellent relationship” following their three face-to-face meetings during the first Trump administration.
The US and South Korea said on Wednesday that the ongoing Ulchi Freedom Shield war games would be reduced to five days instead of the 11 days initially planned, after Trump announced he would “substantially reduce” the military drills due to his “very good relationship” with Kim.
Kim Yo Jong said that Trump’s announcement didn’t mean anything since the military exercises are still taking place, though it’s unclear if her statement came before or after Washington and Seoul decided to cut them short.
“We are paying more attention to the fact that the joint military drills between the US and the ROK have been steadily staged and are still underway, not to the reduction or shortening of individual drills, and we are correctly seeing through the fact that this is an obvious expression of their obvious hostility toward the DPRK,” she said, according to North Korea’s Central News Agency. “If the US calculates that it can propagate its recent measure as one of so-called good faith, they will not get the desired answer.”
She said that while her brother “has good memories and feelings about Trump personally,” the US’s “hostile policy” toward North Korea hasn’t changed.
Trump said he was reducing military drills because of his “good relationship” with Kim, and his post came after South Korean President Lee Jae Myung proposed direct talks with North Korea. After Trump’s announcement, Lee said he hoped the effort would lead to fruitful dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, and he reaffirmed his push for South Korea’s military to become more independent of the US.
