White House says Trump is open to talks with North Korean leader

Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump remains open to renewed talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to fully end the country’s nuclear programme, a White House official said Monday.

The statement followed new comments from North Korea’s state media KCNA, in which it said the country declared that “reality has changed” since the previous U.S.–North Korea summits and that no amount of dialogue would lead to the abandonment of its nuclear weapons.

The remarks come amid escalating rhetoric from Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of Kim Jong Un and one of the country’s top political figures.

Speaking on behalf of her brother, she acknowledged that the personal relationship between Kim and Trump is not bad, but said that leveraging that connection to end the North’s nuclear programme would only be met with “mockery.”

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