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| ▲ U.S. President Donald Trump (R) talks to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their meeting in the truce village of Panmunjom, in this file photo published by the Korean Central News Agency on July 1, 2019. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) (US election) Trump win-N Korea
(LEAD) (US election) N. Korea silent on Trump's presidential victory
(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with latest info)
SEOUL, Nov. 7 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's state media on Thursday remained silent about former U.S. President Donald Trump's election victory for his second presidential term, with speculation rising that the North's leader Kim Jong-un may send a congratulatory message directly to Trump.
The Republican flag-bearer won Tuesday's presidential election, becoming the second U.S. president ever to serve two nonconsecutive terms, after winning major battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.
Major North Korean news outlets, such as the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the Rodong Sinmun daily newspaper and the Korean Central Television had not reported on Trump's election victory as of 9 a.m. Thursday.
North Korea previously covered U.S. presidential election results indirectly, typically sometime after the outcome is announced.
For both of Barack Obama's presidential victories, the Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper targeting the domestic audience, published the results four days after the official announcement.
When Trump first won the presidency in 2016, North Korea indirectly reported the result 11 days after Election Day through a Rodong Sinmun commentary that criticized then South Korean President Park Geun-hye's congratulatory message to Trump.
When Joe Biden won the presidency in 2020, North Korea remained silent for over two months, only indirectly mentioning it through the propaganda outlet DPRK Today after his official inauguration.
Experts said North Korea may go out of its way this time to send a personal letter or congratulatory message directly to Trump, as Kim may want to maintain personal ties with him amid speculation the North could seek nuclear disarmament talks with the United States.
Trump and Kim held summit talks in Singapore in 2018 and Vietnam in 2019. The Hanoi summit ended without a deal due to a failure to narrow differences over the scope of the North's denuclearization and sanctions relief by Washington.
Even after their second summit in Hanoi fell through, Trump and Kim had exchanged undisclosed personal letters.
An official at the unification ministry said that the North's state media has never reported a U.S. presidential election result immediately after its announcement.
"It is still difficult to say how North Korea might report on it or in what manner the country might attempt to contact the president-elect," the official said.
When it comes to presidential elections of nations with which the North has close ties, Pyongyang has typically wasted no time in sending congratulatory messages.
When Vladimir Putin was elected to his fifth term as Russian president in March, Kim sent a congratulatory message on the same day.
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