{"id":126562,"date":"2026-08-20T14:12:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/126562\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:12:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:12:21","slug":"north-korea-denies-any-communication-with-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/126562\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea Denies Any Communication With Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Donald Trump&#8217;s attempt to curry favor with Kim Jong Un received an embarrassing response from Pyongyang.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Trump, who radically <a data-ylk=\"slk:cut joint military drills;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/trump-pulls-rug-from-key-ally-to-suck-up-to-brutal-dictator-kim-jong-un\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">cut joint military drills<\/a> between the U.S. and South Korea while bragging about his &#8220;very good relationship&#8221; with Kim, suggested this week that he is secretly negotiating with the dictator and planned to meet with him this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In response, Kim Yo Jong\u2014the North Korean leader&#8217;s sister and a top adviser\u2014dismissed outright any talk of correspondence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;As for reports coming out of Washington that there has recently been communication between the leaders of North Korea and the United States, I know absolutely nothing about it, and it would probably be the only matter related to our supreme leadership&#8217;s foreign policy of which I am unaware,&#8221; she said Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, flatly denied Trump's claims. \/ PATRICK SEMANSKY \/ AFP via Getty Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"639\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/thedailybeast.com\/b630067347d9d3be38243b1fdf0597bd.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Kim&#8217;s sister, Kim Yo Jong, flatly denied Trump&#8217;s claims. \/ PATRICK SEMANSKY \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She added that Trump&#8217;s move is &#8220;not even worth commenting on&#8221; and that cutting the drills does not cut their &#8220;provocative and aggressive&#8221; nature, the <a data-ylk=\"slk:FT;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/d15d68d5-291b-44d2-8fdf-3afc95308e9e?syn-25a6b1a6=1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">FT<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The situation escalated hours later when Pyongyang launched around 10 short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, South Korea&#8217;s military said Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"She nevertheless assured Trump her brother has fond memories of their earlier meetings. \/ Handout \/ Dong-A Ilbo\/Getty Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/thedailybeast.com\/75bdb41917fcb5c7ef0039e179bbfac7.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>She nevertheless assured Trump her brother has fond memories of their earlier meetings. \/ Handout \/ Dong-A Ilbo\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Trump is gunning to revisit talks with North Korea after meeting with Kim Jong Un three times during his first term in a bid to denuclearize the Hermit Kingdom. His need for a diplomatic win has only become more urgent as the president now barrels toward midterm elections overshadowed by his ongoing war with Iran over its nuclear program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The U.S. president pledged that conflict would last a &#8220;few weeks&#8221; when he started it in February. Almost six months later, there&#8217;s no end in sight, and the president has privately admitted he might have to abandon his demands about Tehran&#8217;s nuclear capabilities altogether.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Trump really needs a win given how badly things are going with Iran.  \/ Reuters\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/thedailybeast.com\/e8f04160b5dbd778eea55ceffebc3d5a.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Trump really needs a win given how badly things are going with Iran.  \/ Reuters<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">His latest overtures to the Kim regime have included <a data-ylk=\"slk:canceling two major annual joint military exercises;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/trump-pulls-rug-from-key-ally-to-suck-up-to-brutal-dictator-kim-jong-un\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">canceling two major annual joint military exercises<\/a> with South Korea. He said on Monday that continuing with those drills, which North Korea has always decried as practice runs for an invasion, would have been &#8220;inappropriate and hostile.&#8221; The exercises remain ongoing but will now end by Friday, six days ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;If the U.S. side calculates that it can portray the measures it has recently taken as some kind of &#8216;goodwill gesture,&#8217; it will not get the response it wants,&#8221; Kim Yo Jong said in her Wednesday statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She did, however, throw a consolation prize the president&#8217;s way, reassuring him that her brother, totalitarian leader of the country with one of the absolute worst human rights records on the planet, holds &#8220;fond personal memories and feelings&#8221; from their earlier meetings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump&#8217;s attempt to curry favor with Kim Jong Un received an embarrassing response from Pyongyang. Trump, who&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[74,141,2371,31,56846,34,177,129,33],"class_list":["post-126562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-north-korea","tag-donald-trump","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-kim-yo-jong","tag-korea","tag-military-drills","tag-north-korea","tag-north-korean-leader","tag-pyongyang","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}