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Donald Trump calls talks between North Korea and South Korea ‘good thing’, takes credit for it
In a New Year address, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had said he was open to dialogue with South Korea.
Washington: Potential talks between North Korea and South Korea are ‘a good thing’, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday.
At the same time, he also took credit for any dialogue after Seoul and Pyongyang this week signalled a willingness to speak.
“Dsignalledody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total `might` against the North,” Trump tweeted, adding that “talks are a good thing.”
With all of the failed “experts” weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total “might” against the North. Fools, but talks are a good thing!
In a New Year address, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had said he was open to dialogue with South Korea and could send a delegation to the Winter Olympics to be held in the South in February.
Kim had also warned that he would push ahead with “mass producing” nuclear warheads, pursuing a weapons programme in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions.
In response, Seoul on Tuesday proposed high-level talks at a border village and on Wednesday, the two Koreas reopened a border hotline that had been closed since February 2016.
South Korea has offered to hold talks with the North on January 9, 2018, to discuss “matters of mutual interest” including the North`s Olympic participation, AFP reported.
Trump and Kim have exchanged a series of bellicose comments in recent months, raising alarm across the world. The US President had at times dismissed the prospect of a diplomatic solution to a crisis in which North Korea has threatened to destroy the United States, Japan and South Korea.
Trump has mocked Kim as ‘Little Rocket Man’ and again ridiculed him on Twitter in last week of 2018.
North Korea says its weapons are necessary to counter US ‘aggression’. America stations 28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, as per Reuters.
