Tuesday’s Yomiuri claimed in a dispatch from Seoul that in a letter sent to President Trump in the third week of August, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un asked the President to visit Pyongyang for a bilateral summit. According to an unidentified source involved in trilateral relations between the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, lower-ranking DPRK officials have called for sanctions relief and a regime guarantee.

In a related development, all national papers wrote that according to a statement released on Monday by a North Korean Foreign Minister official in charge of American affairs, U.S.-DPRK talks involving working-level officials are likely to be convened in the next few weeks. The official reportedly demanded relaxation of sanctions and security assurances, stressing that discussions on denuclearization will be possible “only when threats and obstacles to North Korea’s security are removed without a doubt.”     

Meanwhile, Sankei wrote on Monday that North Korea’s state media ran a commentary on Sunday criticizing the U.S.-Japan joint training aimed at strengthening island defense that began in late August in southern Kyushu. The Kim regime reportedly called the drill a military provocation intended to “control regional powers,” including the DPRK.