Kim Yo Jong, first deputy department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, issued the following statement on March 22:

We received a personal letter sent to Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission by President Donald Trump of the United States of America.

We regard it as a good judgment and proper action for the US president to make efforts to keep the good relations he had with our Chairman by sending a personal letter again at a time as now when big difficulties and challenges lie in the way of developing the bilateral relations, and think that this should be highly estimated.

In his personal letter, President Trump said he was glad to hear that his congratulations to the Chairman on his birthday was correctly conveyed, and wished the family of the Chairman and the Korean people wellbeing.

He also explained his plan to promote the relations between the two countries of the DPRK and the US and expressed his intent to render cooperation in the anti-epidemic work, saying that he was impressed by the efforts made by the Chairman to protect his people from the serious threat of the epidemic.

Saying that he values his relations with Chairman Kim Jong Un, President Trump said that there were difficulties in letting his thoughts known because communications were not made often recently. He expressed his willingness to keep in close touch with the Chairman in the future.

We view such a personal letter of President Trump as a good example showing the special and firm personal relations with Chairman Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong Un also mentioned his special personal relations with President Trump again and appreciated the personal letter.

Fortunately, the personal relations between the two top leaders are not as far away as the relations of confrontation between the two countries, and they are very excellent.

But the relations between the DPRK and the US and their development should not be judged in haste in the light of the personal relations between the two top leaders, and furthermore, neither predictions nor expectations should be made based on them.

As they are the close relations between the two leaders representing the two countries, they would have positive impact but nobody knows how much their personal relations would change and lead the prospective relations between the two countries, and it is not something good to make hasty conclusion or be optimistic about it.

If impartiality and balance are not provided and unilateral and greedy intention is not taken away, the bilateral relations will continue to aggravate.

In my personal opinion, I think that the bilateral relations and dialogue for them would be thinkable only when the equilibrium is kept dynamically and morally and justice ensured between the two countries, not merely by the personal letter between the two leaders.

Even at this moment we are working hard to develop and defend ourselves on our own under the cruel environment which the US is keen to "provide".

We try to hope for the day when the relations between the two countries would be as good as the ones between the two top leaders, but it has to be left to time and be watched whether it can actually happen.

However, we will never lose or waste time for nothing, but will keep changing ourselves to be more powerful for that time just as how we made ourselves for the past two years.

At the end I would like to extend sincere gratitude to the US president for sending his invariable faith to the Chairman.

KCNA