Trump’s latest letter to Kim shows he should abandon gunboat policy: Analyst

US President Donald Trump’s recent letter to Kim Jong-un, which seems to have been welcomed by the North Korean leader, shows the need for Washington to move away from its so-called gunboat policy in dealing with other countries, says American academic and political analyst Denis Etler.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sunday quoted Kim as saying that he would be "seriously” contemplating the letter's "excellent content."

Kim “said with satisfaction that the letter is of excellent content,” the agency reported. “Appreciating the political judging faculty and extraordinary courage of President Trump, Kim Jong-un said that he would seriously contemplate the interesting content.”

The White House has not disclosed when or how Trump's letter to Kim was delivered and made no elaboration on the content.

Trump announced earlier this month that he had received a “beautiful letter” from the North Korean leader, breaking the silence since the collapse of a bilateral summit in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi in February.

Speculations are that the letters could pave the way for a third summit between the two leaders.

“The next step in the letter diplomacy between the two leaders, presidents Trump of the USA and Kim of the DPKR, is for reciprocal visits to each other's capitals,” Eter told Press TV on Sunday.

Referring to Trump’s move, Etler said: “Letter diplomacy is much better than gunboat diplomacy, and delivering letters is much better than delivering bombs.”

“Trump's bellicose fire and fury towards the DPRK has turned into the purring of a pussycat, but to what effect? It seems as if he wants to put the Korean issue on the back burner, as he has other irons in the fire to grab his attention,” the analyst argued.

PressTV-North Korea’s Kim receives 'excellent' letter from Trump

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has received a personal letter of "excellent content" from US President Donald Trump, the North's state media reports.

Etler the said the latest move keeps hopes alive that Trump would finally comes to his senses and reconsiders his policies towards a number of other nations as well.

“Let's hope Kim can stage an intervention and talk Trump into abandoning his mistaken policies towards Iran, China and Russia as well,” he said.

Etler said if Washington really wanted to settle differences with Pyongyang, it needed to address the unilateral sanctions against North Korea.

The Vietnam meeting between Trump and Kim collapsed after Trump rejected Pyongyang’s demands for easing the economic bans.

“But, for all the bonne  amitié between the two leaders severe sanctions are still being imposed on North Korea and no progress has been made in resolving the issues on the peninsula,” Etler argued. “Will this set a pattern for the other conflicts Trump is engaged in? Only time will tell.”

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