White House and Wall Street Journal release audio in dispute over interview, which could indicate a shift in US-North Korea relations

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Donald Trump has disputed a newspaper’s account of an interview with him last week in which he was quoted as saying he probably had a “very good relationship” with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.



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Accusing the Wall Street Journal of misquoting him, Trump said in tweets that he told the newspaper on Thursday “I’d probably” have a good relationship with Kim, using a conditional tense, which he insisted was a “big difference”.

The White House released a portion of the audio from the interview that it said showed Trump said “I’d”.

The Wall Street Journal released its own audio that it said backed up its version of the events.

Any hint that there had been direct contacts between the two leaders, who have exchanged threats and insults, would suggest a major shift in US-led pressure campaign against Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

Quick guide Are US defences strong enough to ward off North Korean missiles? Show Hide What kind of anti-missile defences does the US possess? The US has various anti-missile options, some designed to take down missiles at short-range and others for medium-to-long-range. The US relies heavily on the US Patriot missile and the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD). The US deployed THAAD to South Korea this year to defend against medium-range missiles. There is a three-phased defence system: ground-based missiles on the Korean peninsula; US naval ships stationed in the Pacific; and two bases in Alaska and California that can launch an estimated 36 interceptors.

Is the US system robust enough to stop a North Korean missile attack? No air defence system offers anything like a complete guarantee of success. The Pentagon offer repeated assurances that air defence systems would be more than a match for any North Korean attack. But when missile defence systems have been put to the test over the last few decades, the performance has been far from reassuring.

The US provided anti-missile defence systems to Israel and Saudi Arabia during the First Gulf War as protection against Iraq's Scud missiles. It was initially claimed that they had shot down 41 of 42 missiles fired by Iraq. But eventually it was acknowledged that only a few missiles had been hit.

Recent tests of interceptors have provided little comfort – with success rates of around 50% on average. The Pentagon celebrated in May when it destroyed a mock warhead over the Pacific but overall the performance has been spotty. Since the newest intercept system was introduced in 2004 only four of nine intercept attempts have been successful. Of the five tests since 2010, only two have been successful.

Trump has derided the North Korean leader as a “maniac” and referred to him disparagingly as “little rocket man”. Kim has responded by calling the president a “mentally deranged US dotard”.

Fears of war have eased somewhat after the first round of talks between North and South Korea in more than two years last week, which Trump welcomed, ahead of February’s Winter Olympics in the South. North Korea has said it will participate in the Games.

But a false emergency alert of an impending missile attack issued by Hawaii state authorities on Saturday underscored the threat from North Korea, which is developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US.

“We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters in Florida on Sunday when asked what he would do to resolve the North Korea standoff.

He cited upcoming meetings, possibly a reference to further talks planned between North and South Korea.

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“Hopefully it’s all gonna work out,” Trump added. “We have great talks going on, the Olympics you know about, a lot of things can happen.”

In the Wall Street Journal interview, Trump was asked whether he had spoken with the North Korean leader.

“I don’t want to comment on it. I’m not saying I have or haven’t. I just don’t want to comment,” he said.

Trump, who was spending a long weekend at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, tweeted on Sunday: “Obviously I didn’t say that. I said ‘I’d have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un,’ a big difference. Fortunately we now record conversations with reporters … and they knew exactly what I said and meant. They just wanted a story. FAKE NEWS!“

A White House official said the delay in publicly disputing the Journal’s account was the result of a failed attempt to get the paper to correct the record.

“The reason there was a delay is because we had several calls and emails with WSJ, starting Friday morning, asking them to issue a correction. They refused and so we pushed out our own clarification,” the official said.