South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha speaking in parliament on Monday. Photo: EPA
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https://scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3027478/did-north-koreas-kim-jong-un-invite-us-president-donald-trump East Asia
Did North Korea’s Kim Jong-un invite US President Donald Trump to visit him in Pyongyang?
- The offer for another summit came in a letter delivered late last month, according to South Korea’s ‘Joongang’ newspaper
- This appeared to be confirmed by Seoul’s foreign minister in parliament on Monday, though she did issue a clarification of her comments later in the day
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un walks with US President Donald Trump in Vietnam’s Hanoi in February. Photo: AP
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un invited US President Donald Trump to visit Pyongyang last month, according to a report in South Korean media.
The offer for another Trump-Kim summit came in a letter delivered in the third week of August, the Joongang newspaper said, citing multiple people familiar with the matter.
When asked in a parliamentary session on Monday about the report, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told lawmakers that the government had “received a detailed explanation from our US counterparts that a letter of that kind has been delivered”.
“What was written in the letter, when the letter was delivered, is not for us to confirm,” she added.
However, later on Monday, the ministry issued a statement saying Kang was referring to a different letter that Kim had sent to Trump.
“What Kang meant when she confirmed a letter earlier was the letter that Trump tweeted August 10,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “There is nothing to be confirmed about the Joongang article inviting Trump to Pyongyang.”
The White House offered no immediate comment on the report.
Trump had said in early August that Kim had sent him a “very beautiful letter” that mostly complained “about the ridiculous and expensive” joint military drills between the US and South Korea, adding that Kim had apologised for recent short-range missile tests. Joongang reported the second letter came soon after that one, and it was not clear whether Trump has responded to either letter.
North Koreans vice foreign minister Choe Son-hui agreed to return to talks last week. Photo: AP
Working-level talks on denuclearisation have stalled since Trump and Kim’s last official summit in Hanoi ended without a deal. The pair agreed to restart talks in June at an impromptu meeting in which Trump made history by stepping across the border into North Korea, though little progress has been made since then. North Korea last week agreed to return to talks at a “time and place to be agreed late in September,” its state-run Korean Central News Agency said, citing vice foreign minister Choe Son-hui.
Choe, however, threatened to walk away from future talks if the US returns with the same “worn-out scenario,” KCNA reported, without elaborating further.