Trump says North Korea 'called up' the United States to seek talks
'I would not rule out talks with Kim Jong-un, as far as the risk of dealing with a madman, that's his problem', President jokes at press dinner
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has told reporters North Korea “called up” the United States to seek talks, while also not ruling out direct negotiations with Kim Jong-un.
During a light-hearted speech at a dinner with journalists in Washington on Saturday, the US president suggested talks could take place with Pyongyang if it “denukes”.
It was unclear from Mr Trump’s remarks whether he was joking, or whether the US was indeed on course to enter landmark talks with the secretive communist state.
“Now we’re talking,” Mr Trump said, according to the Washington Post.
“They, by the way, called up a couple of days ago, they said ‘we would like to talk. And I said, ‘so would we, but you have to denuke.’”
The president also joked he would be prepared to engage in direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“I would not rule out direct talks with Kim Jong-un,” Mr Trump said.
“I just won’t. As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that’s his problem, not mine,” he added to laughter.
South Korea will send a 10-strong delegation to Pyongyang on Monday after diplomatic progress made at last month’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang offered hopes of a thaw in relations between the two Koreas.
The visit will attempt to lower tensions on the peninsula and encourage the hermit kingdom to re-enter into dialogue with the United States, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.
However, a spokesperson for North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was “preposterous” that the US wanted it to scrap its nuclear weapons programme as part of any talks.
The ministry did say dialogue with the US was possible and Pyongyang wanted a to find a “diplomatic and peaceful” solution to the conflict.
“The US, that was terrified at the rapid development of our nuclear force and has continued to knock the door of dialogue, now feigns an indifference and advances this or that precondition,” the spokesperson added.
“Not being content with it, it insists that it will have dialogue only for making the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] abandon nuclear weapons and persist in ‘maximum pressure’ until complete denuclearisation is realised.
“This is really more than ridiculous.”
Mr Trump signed off on the largest-ever package of sanctions against the regime last month in a bid to pressure it into giving up its nuclear arsenal.
He warned a “phase two” of the plan would be “very, very unfortunate for the world” if the move did not prove successful.
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