 |
| North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump during their first summit in Singapore on June 12 last year. Yonhap file |
By Jung Da-min
The Choson Sinbo, the pro-Pyongyang media outlet headquartered in Tokyo, highlighted "completely changed" North Korea-U.S. relations, Thursday, referring to negotiations for a second summit between the two countries as a move toward the normalization of relations.
"Throughout last year, the composition of DPRK-U.S. relations has shifted from confrontation to conversation and the 70 year-old history of DPRK-U.S. nuclear confrontation is finally coming to an end," the report said.
It was written on the occasion of U.S. university students' visit to the pro-Pyongyang Korea University in the Japanese capital, and highlighted improving relations between the two countries on the government and non-government level
The report said U.S. President Donald Trump was "all-in" on improving DPRK-U.S. relations, highlighting the vice chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Kim Yong-chol's visit to Washington, D.C., to deliver a letter from leader Kim Jong-un to Trump and the following working-level talks between the two countries in Stockholm.
It further argued that North Korea and the U.S. now have no option but to have talks and negotiate, as North Korea has already secured a strategic nuclear capability.
"The relationship between the two countries is already that of a nuclear state versus a nuclear state," it said. "The DPRK-U.S. relations have no other way than talks, just like Russia-U.S. relations cannot lead to nuclear confrontation despite conflicts over various issues."
The report also focused on the U.S. university students' visit to Tokyo, led by Professor Derek Ford of DePauw University in Indiana.
This was the first student exchange between DePauw University and Korea University through their joint "International Student Exchange Program: ISEP." The U.S. delegation was comprised of 14 students and two professors, and toured the university's campus, museum and historic sites from Japan's colonial rule of Korea, such as a forced labor site.
Professor Ford also held an English lecture for students of the two universities on the subject of the history of North Koreans in Japan over the past 70 years following liberation from Japanese occupation.
