Sanctions and other pressure are beginning to have a “big impact” on North Korea, US President Donald Trump said Tuesday, citing the offer of talks with South Korea by the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un.

“Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not – we will see!” Trump said on his Twitter account, referring to Kim’s proposal for a high level meeting tied to the upcoming Winter Olympics in the South.

South Korea responded to Kim’s overture, delivered in a New Year’s Day speech on Monday, by proposing talks on January 9 at Panmunjon, the truce village on the border between the two Koreas.

North Korea’s race to build an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States with a nuclear warhead has prompted stepped up UN sanctions on Pyongyang — and raised fears of a nuclear conflict.

“Sanctions and ‘other’ pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea,” Trump said, citing recent defections by North Korean soldiers and Kim’s overture.

AFP