President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to hint that the United States and North Korea would be at war with each other if not for himself and the “good conversations” he claims he has with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“Many good conversations with North Korea – it is going well! In the meantime, no Rocket Launches or Nuclear Testing in 8 months,” Trump tweeted early on Tuesday morning.
“All of Asia is thrilled. Only the Opposition Party, which includes the Fake News, is complaining. If not for me, we would now be at War with North Korea!”
As noted by the New York Post , the conversations Trump was referring to were the weekend talks that Sung Kim, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, had with North Korean officials in the village of Panmunjom. This marked the first time that officials from the U.S. and North Korean governments met in person since Trump met with Kim in Singapore on June 12.
According to Politico , the June 12 summit heralded another milestone, as this was the first time a current U.S. president was documented to have spoken to a North Korean leader. While the talks didn’t yield too many “tangible takeaways,” as Politico added, both Trump and Kim agreed to hold further discussions that could potentially result in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Trump tweeted that denuclearization negotiations with North Korea are “going well,” adding that the U.S. would be at war with the repressive communist state if not for him https://t.co/HogkuhmTYQ
— POLITICO (@politico) July 3, 2018
Despite the apparent progress in the aforementioned United States-North Korea talks and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s upcoming visit to North Korea on Thursday, the New York Post wrote that Pyongyang might not be too willing to denuclearize after all, based on recent feedback from U.S. intelligence agencies. Reports alleged last week that North Korea has been “rapidly improving” its nuclear research despite Kim’s apparent commitment to denuclearize, which added to previous claims of the county having undisclosed facilities where it creates parts for nuclear weapons.
In addition to Donald Trump’s new statements on Twitter that seemed to take credit for the smooth conversations between U.S. and North Korean officials, the New York Post wrote that the president appeared on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures on Sunday to assure viewers that he believes North Korea will be good on its word and cease the production of nuclear weapons. He said that he thinks Pyongyang is “very serious about it,” adding that he and Kim Jong-un “have a very good chemistry” with each other. This, according to Politico , strongly contrasted with the time when Trump and Kim exchanged open threats in the summer of 2017 and emphasized the size and power of their countries’ respective nuclear arsenals.
