'Requesting a change in attitude': North Korean leader rebuffs 'love letters' from Trump
President-elect Donald Trump needs to change the tone of his love letters, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un reportedly said this week.
Kim belittled and rebuffed Trump — who once boasted "'We fell in love, okay? No, really, he wrote me beautiful letters" — and the prospect of reviving nuclear diplomacy with the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
“We have already explored every possible avenue in negotiating with the U.S.,” said Kim, according to North Korea's state media. According to the Journal, Kim vented about the U.S.’s “unchanging aggressive and hostile policy” toward North Korea.
Kim reportedly flaunted North Korea’s nuclear capabilities in a direct message to the Trump administration not to mount a pressure campaign against him, Hong Min, a senior researcher at Korea Institute for National Unification, told the Journal.
“North Korea is requesting a change in attitude," Hong said, "in order to make dialogue possible again."
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North Korea’s nuclear program represents a major foreign policy challenge to Trump because Kim has both expanded his arsenal and deepened ties with Russia, the Journal reported.
Trump boasted at the Republican National Convention in July that Kim probably missed him, but Hwang Ji-hwan, a professor of international relations at the University of Seoul, told the Journal he had doubts.
“Trump may think love letters are enough," he said, "but for the past five years Kim has shown he’s determined not to lose face again."
Trump’s preference for Secretary of State Sen. Marco Rubio has compared North Korea to a “criminal syndicate" and Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, called North Korea's ties to China and Russia an “unholy alliance," the Journal reported.
"During his speech on Thursday, Kim accused the U.S. of sowing chaos around the world through 'unscrupulous tactics' that aim to retain America’s sphere of interest globally," the Journal wrote.
Kim was reportedly quoted as saying, “We are currently witnessing the most chaotic and violent world since World War II."