SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea on Friday praised US President Donald Trump as “different from his predecessors” as well as “wise” and “bold” as Pyongyang angles for a possible new summit between their leaders.

According to Kim Kye Gwan, advisor to North Korea’s foreign ministry, the idea of holding a new summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is “highly topical these days in the US”, the official wrote in a statement carried in the North’s official news wire KCNA.

The past meetings between the North Korean and US leaders — in Singapore in 2018, in Hanoi February and at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in June — “served as historic occasions” for them to “express their political will to put an end” the hostile relations between the two countries.

While North Korea made “sincere efforts to build trust” since the meetings, Washington has instead resumed joint military drills with South Korea and increased sanctions on the North.

“It is hard reality that politicians in Washington are obsessed with ‘nuclear disarmament-first’ assertion,” that North Korea can reach “a bright future only when it abandons its nukes first — and with the twisted view” that it was the tough sanctions that forced Pyongyang to open dialogue.

“This makes me doubt whether a new breakthrough” could be reached at any future summit,” the official wrote.

However “I came to know that President Trump is different from his predecessors in political sense and decision” in his approach towards North Korea, “so I would like to place my hope on President Trump’s wise option and bold decision.”

Kim Kye Gwan and North Korea’s foreign ministry “will follow the future moves of the U.S.,” the statement concluded.

© Agence France-Presse