North Korea on Wednesday rejected claims of direct communication between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, even as The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is pressing aides to arrange a meeting as soon as November.
Kim Yo Jong, sister of Kim Jong Un and a senior North Korean official, dismissed the U.S. decision to curb joint military drills with South Korea, calling any reduction in scale or duration incapable of altering what she described as the inherently provocative nature of the exercises. In a statement carried by state-run KCNA, she warned that Washington would not receive the response it seeks if it framed the move as a gesture of goodwill.
The Pentagon confirmed last week that Trump had ordered a reduction in military exercises with South Korea, citing what U.S. officials described as Seoul’s insufficient support for the ongoing conflict in Iran and concerns that the drills sent an inappropriate signal to Pyongyang. Trump has previously met Kim Jong Un three times during his first term, including a 2018 summit in Singapore, but no substantive diplomatic breakthrough was achieved.
Kim Yo Jong also emphasized that North Korea’s stance toward the U.S. had not changed, stating that hostile policies from Washington remained in place. She acknowledged that relations between the two leaders were still described as excellent but denied any ongoing direct talks between them.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is seeking to arrange a meeting with Kim Jong Un as early as this fall, potentially during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, scheduled for November. The reported push for a summit comes amid broader efforts to revive stalled nuclear diplomacy, though Pyongyang has yet to confirm any such engagement.
