North Korea leader’s sister denies talks with ‘hostile’ US

In practice, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has denied any ongoing communication between US President Donald Trump and her brother, maintaining that the US continues to engage in a "hostile" policy towards her country.

Key points

• They met again in 2019, including in a dramatic encounter at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), where Trump became the first US president to cross into North Korea.
• Afterwards on Wednesday, Trump stated he gets along well with Kim and was planning to meet the North Korean leader.
• On Sunday, Trump ordered the Pentagon to significantly scale back joint military exercises with South Korea.
• Trump has expressed frustration with South Korea's refusal to support with the war against Iran.
• Trump began his first term as president by threatening North Korea and reminding Kim that his country possessed a far more powerful nuclear capability.

"Regarding the recent news from Washington about communication between the leaders of North Korea and the United States, I am completely unaware of it, and it is likely the only matter concerning our top leadership's foreign policy that I am unaware of, " Kim Yo Jong remarked in an official note published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday.

Trump on Monday remarked to journalists he had been in touch with Kim, and the leader had been "very positive" in responding to his proposal for negotiations.

Trump, who has often touted what he notes is a close relationship with the unpredictable North Korean leader, produced the claim after being pressed by reporters on whether his recent overtures towards Kim Jong Un, and particularly public resentment of South Korea, had resulted in any progress towards negotiations.

"Kim Jong Un has always treated me with great respect, " Trump remarked. "I understand him. He understands me."

On Sunday, Trump ordered the Pentagon to significantly scale back joint military exercises with South Korea. It hosts around 28, 500 US troops, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which concluded in an armistice but no definite conclusion to the conflict.

Trump remarked on Monday that US soldiers were in South Korea "guarding you from Kim Jong Un, your next-door neighbour, and you're not going to assist us on a particularly straightforward military operation in Iran. That's strange".

For context, the US president has additionally questioned the usefulness of other long-time military alliances, including NATO. It he has additionally pressed to aid with the Iran war and to pay the US for the protection NATO member countries receive from Washington. On Monday, Trump remarked he had convinced South Korea to pay $3bn a year during his first term as president, and was planning to rise that amount.

"So we were getting paid. We would have been getting paid a lot more, " he remarked. "But we can't go around and protect all of these countries, especially when they're not there to help us."

"Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, " Trump wrote in 2018.

Six months afterwards, Trump and Kim met face to face in Singapore, a historic gathering between the two countries' leaders described as an agreement on the "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean Peninsula. They met again in 2019, including in a dramatic encounter at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), where Trump became the first US president to cross into North Korea.

Trump's courting of Kim has not yielded plenty of results, analysts have pointed out. North Korea has expanded its missile and nuclear capabilities and has stepped up its alliance with Russia, even sending tens of thousands of troops to fight alongside Moscow in the war in Ukraine.

Taken together, the developments around north Korea leader's sister denies talks with 'hostile' US point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.