North America Secret Letter Truth Game, Low Possibility of 'North Korea's Denial'

Trump "Received a Letter from Kim Jong-un"
North Korea Denies Sending It Within Half a Day

In June of last year, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un met in the northern area of the Military Demarcation Line at Panmunjom, greeted each other, and then moved to the southern area.

Just half a day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he had received a letter from North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea directly denied the claim, signaling the start of a 'truth game' between the two countries.

The incident began with President Trump. On the morning of the 18th (local time), during a White House briefing on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) task force, Trump stated, "I received a nice letter from (Chairman Kim)."

Less than a full day later, North Korea issued a statement under the name of the "Director of the Foreign Ministry's Press Department of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," directly denying the claim. The Director of the Foreign Ministry's Press Department asserted, "While it is unclear whether the U.S. President was referring to past exchanged letters, our supreme leadership has not sent any letter to the U.S. President recently."

Experts point out that ▲President Trump did not specify the timing or content of the letter ▲considering North Korea's response format and the content of the statement, it is highly likely that North Korea's claim is true.

Hong Min, Director of the North Korea Research Division at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said, "If North Korea were to send a letter under the current circumstances, there would have to be a new agenda beyond mere condolences or greetings related to COVID-19, but North Korea is not in such a situation internally." He added, "They are currently preoccupied with responding to COVID-19 and realistically, it is not an appropriate phase to immediately engage in diplomatic negotiations."

Attention is also drawn to the fact that North Korea issued the statement under the name of the "Director of the Foreign Ministry's Press Department," a working-level official. Hong explained, "The statement was issued at the press department level, not by the North Korea-U.S. working-level negotiator, which means it was a very dry confirmation of the facts."

Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies explained, "The statement seems to be a warning that points out the falsehood without escalating the issue further, indicating a level of moderation hoping the controversy does not spread."

Professor Yang added, "The main cause of this incident is President Trump's unrestrained and casual remarks, and it is highly likely to end as a mere incident."

In fact, this is not the first time President Trump has caused controversy regarding the timing of letters.

On June 17 last year (local time), during an interview with U.S. media, Trump took out a letter he said he received from Chairman Kim and called it a "birthday greeting letter," saying, "I received it yesterday." Prior to that, on June 11 of the same month, Trump had also publicly stated that he received a letter from Chairman Kim.

There was controversy over whether the two letters were the same or different, and at the time, U.S. media leaned toward the possibility that President Trump confused the dates.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.