N.Korea’s Kim sent message to Trump on nuclear talks

SEOUL (Reuters), DECEMBER 31, 2018 -  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent a “conciliatory message” to U.S. President Donald Trump amid stalled nuclear negotiations, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported on Monday.   

Kim’s “letter-like” message to Trump was delivered on Friday through an unspecified channel, the newspaper reported, citing an unnamed diplomatic source.   

The report did not include details about the message but said it related to U.S.-North Korea talks, and was conciliatory in tone.   

On Sunday, the office of South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said Kim had sent a letter to his counterpart in Seoul saying he wants to hold more inter-Korean summits next year to achieve denuclearization of the peninsula.   

Neither the U.S. State Department nor the U.S. Embassy in Seoul had an immediate comment about the report of Kim’s message to Trump when contacted by Reuters.   

Moon’s office could not confirm the Chosun Ilbo report.   

“There is a dialogue channel between North Korea and the United States through which they exchange active communication, but I cannot know whether it took the form of letter or something else,” Moon’s spokesman told a news briefing on Monday.