Trump ready to re-engage with Kim for North Korea’s denuclearisation

US President Donald Trump continues to express willingness to engage with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with the aim of achieving a “fully denuclearised” Korean Peninsula, a White House official confirmed on July 25. 

This comes a day after the administration announced a new series of measures targeting Pyongyang’s illicit funding operations, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

On July 24, the Trump administration unveiled a package of actions against North Korea, including offering rewards for information regarding seven North Korean nationals allegedly involved in schemes to generate funds for the regime’s nuclear and missile programmes.

“President Trump, in his first term, held three historic summits with North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un that stabilised the Korean Peninsula and achieved the first-ever leader-level agreement on denuclearisation,” the official said.

“The president retains those objectives and remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully de-nuclearised North Korea,” the official added.

The comments came in response to questions over whether actions on July 24 suggested the administration viewed diplomacy with Pyongyang as currently difficult, opting instead to rely on sanctions and pressure to bring North Korea back to talks.

Speculation continues that Trump might seek to revive his diplomacy with Kim, which led to three landmark meetings: in Singapore in 2018, Hanoi in February 2019, and at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom in June 2019.

Last month, Trump stated he would resolve “the conflict” with North Korea if one existed, fuelling further expectations of a possible dialogue restart.

The latest sanctions included penalising a North Korean trading company, with warnings that the US “will not stand idly by”. At the same time, Pyongyang profits from “criminal activities” supporting its “destabilising” weapons programmes.

By Aghakazim Guliyev