According to North Korean officials, President Donald Trump sent a letter to Kim Jong-un, the country’s leader, offering to help battle the coronavirus, The New York Times reported Sunday.
“I would like to extend sincere gratitude to the U.S. president for sending his invariable faith to the Chairman,” Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s sister and policy aide, said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. She called Trump’s decision to write the letter “a good judgment and proper action,” the newspaper reported.
The White House confirmed Trump had sent Kim a letter but did not comment on its content, the Times reported.
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According to Kim Yo-Jong, the president “expressed his intent to render cooperation in the anti-epidemic work, saying that he was impressed by the efforts made by the Chairman to defend his people from the serious threat of the epidemic.”
President Trump has sent a letter to North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, expressing his willingness to help the North battle the coronavirus, North Korea said on Sunday https://t.co/LPcrHd91Zi
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 22, 2020
The letter came to light after Kim observed the firing of tactical guided weapons over the weekend, according to The Associated Press.
Trump has written to Kim before. He sent birthday greetings to the North Korean leader in January. The two leaders have met three times and have exchanged several letters since 2018, the AP reported.
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Kim Yo Jong said Sunday that her brother had “mentioned his special personal relations with President Trump again and appreciated the personal letter," the Times reported.
“We try to hope for the day when the relations between the two countries would be as good as the ones between the two top leaders, but it has to be left to time and be watched whether it can actually happen,” she said. “However, we will never lose or waste time for nothing, but will keep changing ourselves to be more powerful for that time just as how we made ourselves for the past two years.”
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