US President Donald Trump (left) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un walk together during their June 2019 meeting at Panmunjom. Trump posted three photos of himself with Kim on Truth Social on Monday. [Social media]
US President Donald Trump (left) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un walk together during their June 2019 meeting at Panmunjom. Trump posted three photos of himself with Kim on Truth Social on Monday. [Social media]

US President Donald Trump posted several photos of himself with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on social media Monday (local time), in what analysts see as a renewed push to restart dialogue after a string of recent public references to the North Korean leader.

Trump shared three photos with Kim in succession on Truth Social that day.

The first image appears to be from the first North Korea-US summit held in Singapore in June 2018. The remaining two appear to be from the leaders' meeting at Panmunjom in June 2019.

The posts are seen as an extension of Trump's recent overtures toward Kim, including his order to sharply scale back joint US-South Korea military exercises. With North Korea showing little sign of responding to Trump's calls for talks, the move appears intended to remind Kim of the warm ties they once shared and nudge him back to the negotiating table.

Notably absent was any image from the second North Korea-US summit, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019 — a meeting that ended without agreement. Kim traveled all the way by train only to return empty-handed, making the Hanoi summit an episode he would likely prefer to forget.

By posting only photos from the first summit, where the two leaders produced a joint statement, and from his personal visit to Panmunjom, Trump appeared to be making an indirect appeal to Kim — highlighting the high points of their relationship rather than its low ones.

Trump has boasted that he intends to meet Kim before the end of the year. North Korea has dismissed the reduction of joint military exercises as of little interest, but has left the door open by acknowledging that the relationship between the two leaders remains excellent.


yckim6452@heraldcorp.com