PhotoWASHINGTON — Barely more than a week after boasting that he has a bigger nuclear button than Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, President Trump portrayed himself on Thursday as having good relations with the autocratic leader of the rogue nation. “I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un,” Mr. Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. I think you people are surprised.”Mr. Trump declined to say whether he had directly spoken with his North Korean counterpart. The current, more positive, state of the president’s relationship with Mr. Kim, according to Mr. Trump, comes in the midst of a modest thaw in relations between North Korea and South Korea, whose officials met, face-to-face, for talks for the first time in recent days. Those talks have not included Mr. Trump, who said in Thursday’s interview that his shifting commentary about the North Korean leader was part of a broader strategy.

Source: New York Times January 11, 2018 23:37 UTC