President Donald Trump would welcome communications with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after having had friendly relations with Kim during his first term, the White House said on Wednesday.

“The president remains receptive to correspondence with Kim Jong Un,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Trump and Kim held three summits during Trump’s 2017-2021 first term and exchanged a number of what Trump called “beautiful” letters. In June 2019, Trump briefly stepped into North Korea from the demilitarised zone with South Korea.

Little progress was made, however, at reining in North Korea’s nuclear programme, and Trump acknowledged in March that Pyongyang is a “nuclear power.”

The attempts at rapprochement come after the election in South Korea of a new president, Lee Jae-myung, who has pledged to reopen dialogue with North Korea.

Analysts say, however, that engaging North Korea will likely be more difficult for both Lee and Trump than it was in the US president’s first term.

Since then, North Korea has significantly expanded its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes and developed close ties with Russia through direct support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, to which Pyongyang has provided both troops and weaponry.

Since Trump’s first-term summitry with Kim Jong Un ended, North Korea has shown no interest in returning to talks.