U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday hailed the absence of nuclear-capable missiles in the military parade in Pyongyang celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Trump tweeted that "North Korea has just staged their parade, celebrating 70th anniversary of founding, without the customary display of nuclear missiles."
"Theme was peace and economic development," he said.
Quoting Fox News as saying that "experts believe that North Korea cut out the nuclear missiles to show President Trump its commitment to denuclearize," Trump said that "this is a big and very positive statement from North Korea."
"Thank you To Chairman Kim. We will both prove everyone wrong! There is nothing like good dialogue from two people that like each other! Much better than before I took office," he said, referring to Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the DPRK.
A massive parade was held in central Pyongyang on Sunday morning to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK. Some military weapons, including rockets and tanks, were also demonstrated in the parade. But the scale was not as big as expected and long-range missiles were not displayed.
At the conclusion of the historic Trump-Kim summit in June, the two sides issued a joint statement, in which they agreed to improve bilateral relations and work together to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the peninsula.
However, the current DPRK-U.S. talks have been stuck in an impasse due to their differences over the scale of denuclearization, U.S. sanctions, and whether to issue a war-ending declaration.
Kim told South Korea's envoy on Wednesday that he firmly supports and will be devoted to completely removing the danger of armed conflicts and the horrors of war from the Korean Peninsula and turning it into a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from any nuclear threat.
Trump tweeted later on Thursday in response, thanking Kim for making such a statement and noting that "we will get it done together."
He said on Friday that he was expecting a "positive" letter from Kim.
