Washington: US President Donald Trump has reignited speculation about renewed outreach to North Korea by posting a 2019 photograph of his meeting with Kim Jong-un in the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, accompanied by a claim that the two leaders “get along great”.
On Truth Social, Trump wrote that although they do not look friendly in that particular picture, there are many others where they are smiling, and added, “Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!” The post comes as the White House has repeatedly said Trump remains open to dialogue with Kim “without any preconditions”, even as it remains uncertain whether Pyongyang will respond amid its deepening economic, diplomatic and military cooperation with Moscow.
Trump held three in-person meetings with Kim during his first term — the first-ever US–North Korea summit in Singapore in June 2018, a second meeting in Hanoi in February 2019, and a third at Panmunjom in June 2019.
The Panmunjom encounter drew global attention after Trump briefly crossed the Military Demarcation Line with Kim, becoming the first sitting US president to set foot on North Korean soil. In June, Trump also shared a photo from the Singapore summit on Truth Social, reinforcing speculation that he may seek to revive his personal diplomacy with Kim.
In an analysis published this week, Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), argued that contrary to conventional wisdom, Kim could pursue renewed summitry with Trump, potentially after the US midterm elections this fall, if Pyongyang adopts a “revisionist” approach aimed at cementing its status as a nuclear-armed state.
(Inputs from IANS)