White House: "Trump open to communication with Kim Jong-un for North Korea denuclearization"

[Financial News] The US White House announced on the 25th (local time) that President Donald Trump is open to dialogue with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un for the complete denuclearization of North Korea.
According to foreign media, a White House official responded to a question about whether the new sanctions announced by the US government the previous day on North Korea's IT workers being sent overseas and other illegal activities were due to the judgment that diplomacy with North Korea would be difficult for the time being.
The official stated, "President Trump held three historic summits with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un during his first term, stabilizing the Korean Peninsula and achieving the first-ever summit-level agreement on denuclearization."
Referring to the three North Korea-US summits held in Singapore in June 2018, in Hanoi, Vietnam in February 2019, and the sudden meeting at Panmunjom in June 2019, as well as the agreement reached during the Singapore North Korea-US summit.
The White House official also emphasized, "President Trump continues to maintain these goals and remains open to communicating with Chairman Kim to achieve complete denuclearization of North Korea."
Reconfirming that the Trump administration maintains the 'denuclearization' goal, which North Korea completely rejects, it is interpreted that if additional North Korea-US summits are pursued in the future, the goal will be North Korea's denuclearization.
The previous day, the US Treasury Department newly designated the "Sobaeksu Trading Company," which dispatched North Korean IT workers to Vietnam, and three North Koreans, Kim Se-woon, Myung Cheol-min, and Cho Kyung-hoon, involved in illegal fundraising activities, as targets of sanctions.
Additionally, the US Department of Justice indicted Shim Hyun-seop and six accomplices for their involvement in North Korea's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) funding through illegal cigarette trading, and the State Department announced a reward of up to 15 million dollars (about 20 billion won) for information leading to the arrest or conviction of these seven individuals.

nodelay@fnnews.com Park Ji-yeon Reporter