This outcome, he said, is “not to bring North Korea to its knees, but to its senses”.
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On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced new steps it’s taking to “further isolate North Korea”, a cash-strapped military state that operates with few worldwide allies.
Writer Han Yong-mook said that Trump’s policy on USA troops stationed overseas would lead to the withdrawal of troops from South Korea, a long-held North Korean wish.
A column carried on Tuesday by DPRK Today, one of the reclusive and dynastic state’s mouthpieces, described Trump as a “wise politician” and the right choice for USA voters in the November 8 US presidential election.
The measure will prevent both direct and indirect North Korean financial activities within the U.S. banking network, ensuring that any third-party deals involving significant sums of USA dollars or other currencies can not transit the United States.
But in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with a high-ranking North Korean envoy on Wednesday, in an apparent move aimed at easing strains between the two countries.
In a more recent interview with the Reuters news agency, Mr Trump said he was willing to meet Kim.
“I would speak to him, I would have no problem speaking to him”, he said.
The two also reaffirmed the traditional friendship between the countries and pledged to boost inter-party exchanges in order to “shore-up and develop China-North Korean relations and strive to advance regional peace and stability”, the department said.
“There are many “positive aspects” to take away from Trump’s ‘inflammatory campaign promises, ‘” the writer says in the DPRK Today column, pointing out Trump’s indications that Seoul should pay “100 percent” of the cost for the American troops stationed in the South and, if not, Washington should pull them out.
“The day when the slogan becomes real would be the day of Korean Unification”, said the editorial, first reported by website NK News.
The latest defection is the second of its kind since 13 North Korean restaurant workers arrived in South Korea in April.
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Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South have been in a technical state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. South Korea has denied the accusation and said the workers chose to resettle on their own. Talmadge is the AP’s Pyongyang bureau chief.
