The White House: Trump Remains Open to Dialogue with Kim Jong Un

SadaNews - A White House official revealed last night that U.S. President Donald Trump is still open to communicating with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to achieve a "completely denuclearized" North Korea, just one day after his administration announced a series of measures to disrupt Pyongyang's schemes for illicit revenue.

The Trump administration unveiled a package of actions against North Korea on Thursday, including offering rewards for information on seven North Korean citizens involved in a scheme believed to fund the regime's nuclear and missile programs.

The official told the South Korean news agency "Yonhap" via email: "President Trump held three historic summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his first term, which led to stability on the Korean Peninsula and achieved the first-ever leader-level agreement on denuclearization."

The official added: "The president keeps those goals and remains open to communication with leader Kim to achieve a completely denuclearized North Korea."

This response came in answer to a question about whether Thursday's actions against North Korea indicated that the Trump administration sees diplomacy with Pyongyang as difficult at this time and that they will focus on sanctions and other pressure measures to bring North Korea back to dialogue.

There are ongoing expectations that Trump may seek to resume his personal diplomacy with Kim, which led to three personal meetings between them - the first in Singapore in 2018, the second in Hanoi in February 2019, and the third in the Panmunjom border village in June 2019.

Last month, Trump stated that he would "resolve the conflict" with North Korea if any conflict arose - a remark that heightened speculation that he may wish to initiate dialogue with Kim.

On Thursday, the Trump administration took a series of steps against North Korea, including imposing sanctions on a North Korean trading company, warning that it "will not stand idly by" when Pyongyang reaps profits from what it termed criminal activities to fund its "destabilizing" weapons development programs.