North Korea says will not offer anything to Trump without receiving in return: KCNA

As Kim supervises air drills while US and South Korea postpone drills: KCNA

SEOUL: North Korea will not offer anything for US President Donald Trump to brag about without receiving anything in return, a statement on its state news agency KCNA said on Monday.

North Korea was not interested in a summit that was “useless to itself”, said the statement, under the name of Foreign Ministry adviser Kim Kye Gwan, referring to Trump’s message on Sunday to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Twitter.

“If the US does not really want to let go of its dialogue with us, it should make a decision to withdraw its hostile policy of viewing us as an enemy,” the KCNA statement said.

US, South Korea could scale back joint drills: Esper

Air drills

North Korean media reported on Monday that Kim supervised air force drills for the second time in three days, even as the United States and South Korea decided to postpone their joint air drills to ease denuclearisation talks with North Korea.

The US and South Korea said on Sunday they would postpone upcoming military drills, known as the Combined Flying Training Event, in an effort to bolster a stalled peace push with North Korea. Washington denied the move amounted to another concession to Pyongyang.

The drills, already planned to be scaled back from previous years, would have simulated air combat scenarios and involved an undisclosed number of warplanes from both the United States and South Korea to test readiness.

On Monday, KCNA said Kim supervised an airborne landing training of sharpshooter sub-units of the Air and Anti-Aircraft Force of the North Korean army.

Kim “said that it is necessary to wage a drill without notice under the simulated conditions of real war” for “improving the preparedness” of North Korean military units, KCNA said.

On Saturday, KCNA had reported that Kim watched a “combat flight contest” of the flight commanding officers of the Air and Anti-Aircraft Force. A photo in state newspaper Rodong Sinmun showed him smiling amid pilots gathered around him.

Trump says North Korea went too far in calling ‘sleepy’ Biden 'a rabid dog'

It was unclear when Kim oversaw these events, or whether it was on the same day. There were no mention of US or South Korea in the KCNA reports.

Trump on Sunday told Kim, “You should act quickly, get the deal done” with the United States, and signed off “See you soon!” on Twitter.

Mr. Chairman, Joe Biden may be Sleepy and Very Slow, but he is not a “rabid dog.” He is actually somewhat better than that, but I am the only one who can get you where you have to be. You should act quickly, get the deal done. See you soon! https://t.co/kO2k14lTf7

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2019