U.S. President Donald Trump has been pushing for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by the end of the year, but the rogue state has thrown cold water on his overtures so far.
Trump in mid-August abruptly ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea (and has since canceled another joint exercise), criticizing the drills as “hostile” toward Pyongyang while citing his “very good relationship” with Kim. Though North Korea has decried such drills as rehearsals for war, Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, effectively dismissed Trump’s conciliatory move as meaningless despite characterizing the relationship between her brother and Trump as “excellent.”
“If the U.S. side attempts to promote the measures they have taken this time as some kind of ‘goodwill gesture,’ they will not get the answer they desire,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement.
Trump held historic summits with Kim Jong Un during his first term in an effort to convince North Korea to denuclearize. During those meetings—which took place in Singapore in June 2018; Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019; and the Korean demilitarized zone in June 2019—North Korea sought sanctions relief and security guarantees from the United States.
