Washington: Potential talks between North Korea and South Korea are 'a good thing', US President Donald Trump said on Thursday.
At the same time, he also took credit for any dialogue after Seoul and Pyongyang this week signalled a willingness to speak.
"With all of the failed 'experts' weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total 'might' against the North. Fools, but talks are a good thing," he tweeted.
With all of the failed “experts” weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total “might” against the North. Fools, but talks are a good thing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018
In a New Year address, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had said he was open to dialogue with South Korea and could send a delegation to the Winter Olympics to be held in the South in February.
Kim had also warned that he would push ahead with "mass producing" nuclear warheads, pursuing a weapons programme in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions.
In response, Seoul on Tuesday had proposed high-level talks at a border village and on Wednesday, the two Koreas reopened a border hotline that had been closed since February 2016.
On the other hand, Trump and Kim have exchanged a series of bellicose comments in recent months, raising alarm across the world.
The US President had at times dismissed the prospect of a diplomatic solution to a crisis in which North Korea has threatened to destroy the United States, Japan and South Korea.
While, Trump has mocked Kim as 'Little Rocket Man', North Korea says its weapons are necessary to counter US 'aggression'. America stations 28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, as per Reuters.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday had welcomed the reopening of a hotline between North and South Korea and has voiced hope for more diplomatic initiatives to end the peninsula`s nuclear standoff.
"It is always a positive development to have a dialogue between the Democratic People`s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea," UN spokesman Farhan Haq had said, AFP reported.
Guterres "welcomes the reopening of the inter-Korean communication channel," he had added.
UN Security Council resolutions call for the de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and "we hope that enhanced diplomatic initiatives will help to achieve that goal," Haq had said.
(With Agency inputs)
