United States President Donald Trump says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has responded to his recent outreach, a day after ordering the Pentagon to scale back drills with longstanding ally South Korea.

When asked by reporters at the Oval Office on Monday why Kim had not responded to his request for a conversation, Trump replied, “How do you know he hasn’t responded?”

Pressed again, Trump said, “Yeah, he has.”

The US president went on to describe the exchange as “very positive”, without providing further detail.

There was no immediate comment from North Korea.

Trump on Sunday instructed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with long-term Asian ally South Korea.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said the annual drills were “not only costly … but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful”.

He also linked the decision to Seoul’s refusal to help with the US-Israel war on Iran.

South Korea’s stance on Iran

Trump again criticised South Korea over the war on Iran on Monday.

“Wait a minute,” he said at the Oval Office. “We have 39,000 soldiers over there, guarding you from Kim Jong Un, your next-door neighbour, and you’re not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran. That’s strange.”

Trump once again called into question US support for both South Korea and NATO allies that have refused to contribute to the Iran war. “We can’t go around and protect all of these countries, especially when they’re not there to help us,” he said.

South Korean officials said the exercises had begun as planned and that they hoped the personal chemistry between Trump and Kim would bring them back to talks.

On Tuesday, Seoul’s presidential office said the drills did not reflect “any intention to attack North Korea or escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula”.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung reiterated that their fundamental purpose is “not to treat a specific entity as an adversary, but to safeguard the safe and peaceful daily lives of the people”, his office added.

Trump’s relationship with Kim has received less White House emphasis than it did in his first term, when the two men met and exchanged letters before negotiations broke down in 2019 over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons arsenal. Since then, the US president has repeatedly signalled interest in reviving direct diplomacy with the North Korean leader.

Last year, Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, conceded that the personal relationship between her brother and Trump was “not bad”, but if Washington intended to use a personal relationship as a way to end Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme, the effort would only be the subject of “mockery”.

‘I understand him’

Since Trump and Kim last met in 2019, North Korea has significantly strengthened ties with Russia while maintaining close relations with China.

North Korean troops have fought alongside Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, and Kyiv said last week that North Korean-made missiles were used in a Russian ballistic missile attack on a steel plant in Zaporizhzhia.

Trump’s administration has repeatedly criticised North Korea’s military support for Russia in Ukraine, but on Monday the US president said “Kim Jong Un has always treated me with great respect.

“I understand him. He understands me,” he said.

Analysts say that despite North Korea’s coolness to Trump’s overtures and the much stronger position Kim is in since their last summit, another meeting between the two was possible.

Victor Cha, head of the Korea programme at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, doubted North Korea would respond immediately, however.

“I think they’re going to bide their time and wait a little bit,” he told the Reuters news agency.

Cha said part of Trump’s motivation for raising North Korea again appeared to be to shift headlines away from his struggles with the Iran war, although he was clearly interested in seeing Kim again.