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By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has responded to his overture for dialogue, a day after he unveiled his order to "substantially" reduce South Korea-U.S. military exercises in what was seen as a conciliatory gesture toward Pyongyang.

Trump made the remarks during a press availability at the White House amid speculation that his directive on the allied exercises could create room for the resumption of dialogue with Pyongyang, though uncertainty remains over whether the North could return to diplomacy amid deepening cooperation with Moscow.

Responding to a reporter's question about why Kim has not responded to his request for talks, Trump said, "How do you know he hasn't responded?"

Asked in a follow-up whether Kim had, Trump said, "Yes, he has."

The president did not elaborate, leaving it unclear when or how the two leaders interacted or what they discussed.

Asked to comment further on his conversation with Kim, Trump described it as "very positive."

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said he has instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "substantially" scale back military exercises with South Korea, pointing out that based on his "very good" relationship with Kim, he was "not happy" that the U.S. has agreed to join those exercises.

Trump argued that the allied exercises are "not only costly" but also send a "totally inappropriate and hostile" signal to North Korea that he said has been "unthreatening and respectful" during his time in office.

Asked by a reporter to respond to the view that he is prioritizing the interests of North Korea over America's longtime ally, South Korea, by scaling back joint drills, Trump argued that he is making the security situation "much safer."

"I get along with (Kim) very well. No, what I am doing is making things safer, just the opposite," he said.

He also boasted that Kim has always treated him "with great respect."

"We met on numerous occasions, actually two primary occasions, spoken and spent time," he said. "I understand him. He understands me."

Trump had three in-person meetings with Kim during his first term: the first meeting in Singapore in June 2018, the second in Hanoi in February 2019 and the third at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom in June 2019.

Noting that he recently had a call with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Trump said that Lee declined to accede to his request for Seoul's help regarding the Iran war. However, he called Lee "very nice actually."

"I said, 'Would you like to give us a little hand? We don't need help with Iran, but if you'd like, give us a hand with Iran. He said, 'No thanks,'" Trump said of the call with Lee.

"And I said, 'Wait a minute. We have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong-un, your next-door neighbor, and you are not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran. That's strange.'"

He expressed his unease over an ally's perceived refusal to support the U.S. during the Iran war, stressing that all he wants is "fairness."

"I want to help them, but when you ask somebody, 'Would you like to give us a hand?,' and they say, 'No,' and then, we are guarding them from a country, and paying ourselves billions, and it's costing us billions and billions of dollars to protect not only them, but other countries," he said.

Trump claimed that South Korea used to pay US$3 billion a year in an apparent reference to Seoul's financial contributions to the upkeep of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea, but his predecessor, Joe Biden, rescinded that payment order.

"We would have been getting paid a lot more, but we can't go around and protect all of these countries, especially when they are not there to help us," he said.

Trump has repeatedly expressed his displeasure over allies' lack of support for the U.S. in its war efforts against Iran.

In April, Trump said South Korea was "not helpful" to the U.S. despite Washington having stationed its troops "in harm's way" in the Asian country, which he stressed is located "right next to" North Korea's nuclear force.

sshluck@yna.co.kr

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