![North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, left, and former U.S. President Donald Trump smile during a meeting on the south side of the Military Demarcation Line that divides South and North Korea on June 30, 2019. [YONHAP]](https://www.koreadailyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/0723-Trump-Kim.jpg)
U.S. President Donald Trump remains open to exchanging letters with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and hopes to revive the progress made during their 2018 summit in Singapore, the White House said on June 11.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed reports that North Korean diplomats rejected a letter from Trump intended for Kim.
“The president remains receptive to correspondence with Kim Jong-un, and he’d like to see the progress that was made at that summit in Singapore, which I know you covered in 2018 during his first term,” Leavitt said at the White House on June 11. “As for specific correspondence, I’ll leave that to the president to answer.”
NK News reported earlier on June 11, citing an unnamed source, that “Trump drafted the letter to Kim Jong-un with the goal of restarting the dialogue that they had across three summits during his first term, but despite multiple attempts to deliver the letter in person, North Korean diplomats based at the U.N. headquarters in Manhattan have bluntly refused to accept it.”
During Trump’s first term, Trump and Kim held three meetings, including the historic 2018 summit in Singapore and a 2019 meeting at the Demilitarized Zone, where Trump briefly stepped into North Korea.
They exchanged numerous letters, which Trump described as “beautiful letters.”
Trump has consistently expressed a willingness to resume dialogue with North Korea, calling the country a “nuclear power” on Jan. 20 when he returned to the White House and stating three days later that he intended to reach out to Kim.
BY KIM HYOUNG-GU [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]
