"Dialogue Without Preconditions"...Trump Reaches Out Again to Kim Jong Un

[Financial News] The White House stated that President Donald Trump remains open to "any dialogue without preconditions" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. This is Washington’s official response after North Korea suggested it could improve relations under certain conditions.
A White House official, responding on the 26th (local time) to questions about Kim Jong Un’s recent remarks, recalled, "During his first term in office, President Trump held three historic summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that helped stabilize the Korean Peninsula." The official went on to say, "The US North Korea policy has not changed," adding, "President Trump is still open to talking with Kim Jong Un without any preconditions."
This is seen as both a reaffirmation of Washington’s willingness for leader‐level talks without conditions and an emphasis that its existing principle of pursuing the complete denuclearization of North Korea remains unchanged.
In the general report of the 9th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea released earlier, Kim Jong Un suggested that relations with the United States could improve if Washington respects North Korea’s status as a nuclear‐armed state and withdraws its hostile policy toward the DPRK. In his work report at the Party Congress held on the 20th and 21st, Kim said he would maintain a "hard‐line stance" as the basic direction of policy toward the US, but also remarked, "If it respects the current status of our state and withdraws its hostile policy toward the DPRK, there is no reason why we cannot get along well with the United States."
Diplomatic circles are watching to see whether President Trump’s visit to China could serve as a catalyst for renewed communication between Washington and Pyongyang. Some observers speculate that a message exchange between the US and North Korean leaders could take place on the occasion of the China trip, which is being discussed for sometime between the end of next month and early April.
During his first term, President Trump held summits with Kim in Singapore in June 2018 and in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019, and met him again at Panmunjom in June 2019. The Singapore summit produced a joint statement that included commitments to "establish new United States–North Korea relations," "build a Korean Peninsula peace regime," and "work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." However, the Hanoi summit failed to yield an implementation agreement due to differences over denuclearization steps and sanctions relief, and substantive denuclearization talks have since been stalled.
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km@fnnews.com Kim Kyung-min Reporter