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This handshake changed the world: When Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un met on June 12, 2018 at the Capella Hotel in Singapore, communism and capitalism also grew closer. The president of the United States and his North Korean counterpart spoke for almost two hours and the observers spoke of the final end of the Cold War. Even if the agreements that were made there remained vague and both parties diverged since then, Donald Trump always spoke of great success. Kim Jong Un, on the other hand, barely commented on the meeting and is not accountable to anyone in his power structure.
But now American journalist Bob Woodward has published excerpts from a total of 18 interviews he was able to conduct with Donald Trump in recent months. Among other things, Trump showed Woodward 27 previously unknown letters that Kim wrote to the president of the United States. The journalist was not allowed to copy it, he recorded its content on a recording device. Two of the letters have been published so far, the transcripts of which are available on CNN, for example.
Letters of love and declarations of loyalty
The correspondence takes a new look at the relationship between two polarized government leaders and reveals why Trump, who called Kim a “little rocket man” and the like at the beginning of his term, later became the first president of America in meeting a North Korean ruler: because Kim Trump adored. The North Korean addresses Americans as “Your Excellency” at all times and praises him in the highest tones. Trump describes them as “love letters”, Bob Woodward speaks of “declarations of loyalty that could come from the pen of the Knights of the Round Table or the postulants.”
So Kim wrote on December 25, six months after the Singapore meeting: “Even now I cannot forget that historic moment when I held the hand of His Excellency in this beautiful and holy place, while the whole world was with great interest and I watched in hopes of reliving the honor of that day. “At the beginning of the new year, the whole world would see” another historical encounter between me and His Excellency, reminiscent of a scene from a fantasy movie, “Kim continued.
“Friendship as magic”
Three days later, Trump responded: “Like you, I am not worried that we will achieve a great result for our two countries. The only two leaders who can do it are you and me. “
On February 27 and 28, 2019, another meeting was held between the two in Vietnam. As in Singapore, the central issue was the nuclear disarmament of North Korea. The second letter Woodward released was written four months after the occasion. “Like the brief time we spent together in Singapore a year ago, every minute we shared 103 days ago in Hanoi was a moment of fame that remains a precious memory,” Kim wrote, adding, “I think the profound and extraordinary friendship between us will work as if by magic. ”
Third meeting, cover and many photos
CNN also cites other letters. In June 2019, Trump wrote to Kim: “If we work together, we can eliminate our two countries’ problems and end nearly 70 years of hostility. That would come with an era of prosperity for the Korean Peninsula that exceeded our expectations, and you will be the one to lead. ”
Soon after, Trump suggested that the two meet for the third time, this time in Korea’s DMZ. After this meeting, which took place on June 30, 2019, Trump Kim broadcast an issue of the “New York Times” on the cover of which the two rulers were represented. He commented, “Spending the day with you was really cool.” Two days later, Trump sent 22 photos of the meeting to Kim Yong Un, saying they captured the special friendship between them.
The sound gets sharper
Meanwhile, something had changed for Kim. He responded a month later, “in a tone that could belong to a disappointed friend or lover,” Woodward told CNN. Kim was disappointed that the US joint military exercises with South Korea had not stopped, as Trump promised in Singapore. “I am clearly offended and do not want to hide these feelings from you. I am truly very offended. “And further:” Your Excellency, I am extremely proud and honored that we have a relationship in which I can convey those thoughts to you. ”
Before this friendship by pen, the atmosphere between North Korea and the United States heated up. North Korea provoked the Western world with missile tests, Trump tweeted negatively about Kim almost daily and threatened to “react with an anger the world has never seen.”
Woodward says later alarms sounded at the White House and it was assumed that a nuclear war was about to begin. Later, Defense Secretary James Mattis told Woodward: “These provocations are unproductive, childish and dangerous.” Mattis himself “learned to resist such provocations in the second degree.”
“If he weren’t president, we would be at war”
Nonetheless, the threat of war seemed real, especially for Trump. To Woodward, he said, “He (Kim) was absolutely ready to go. And he expected it too, but then we met. “Two weeks later, Trump told Woodward,” If I were not president, we would have, maybe it would have ended, maybe not, a great war. ”
Trump said he had “given up nothing at all to meet Kim.” Critics say that with the meeting, Trump took the threats too seriously and gave Kim legitimation that he is said to have eagerly sought.
At a later date, Trump spoke with Woodward about the details of the meetings. He said, according to CNN, that he knew Kim would not make a deal and destroy his facilities, but it was disputed whether the individual ones would be destroyed. I know all the systems. I know them better than my people. You have to understand, ”he told Woodward. But when Kim wouldn’t budge, Trump chose a different strategy: “Do you ever do more than fire rockets into the air?” He is said to have asked Kim. “Let’s go to the movies. Let’s play a round of golf.”
Trump was apparently enthusiastic about the North Korean dictator. He tells Woodward that Kim “tells him everything.” Among other things, he gave him a “pictorial description” of how he had murdered his uncle.
CIA: Kim’s letters are a masterpiece
After showing the letters to Woodward, Trump warned reporters in January 2020 not to provoke Kim. “You must not make fun of Kim. I don’t want a nuclear war because you made fun of it. “
According to Woodward, the CIA still doesn’t know who wrote Kim’s letters. But they are considered “masterpieces”. “Analysts praise the writer’s ability to find exactly the right combination of flattery and his understanding of size.”
