US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, on the North Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone at Panmunjom, June 30, 2019. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday sent a message of sympathy to President Donald Trump and his wife Melania, wishing they would recover from the COVID-19 illness, state media reported.

“He sincerely hoped that they would recover as soon as possible. He hoped they will surely overcome it,” the Korean Central News Agency reported. “He sent warm greetings to them.”

Trump said Friday he and his wife had tested positive for the coronavirus, and leaders across the world have sent messages of goodwill to the couple.

Kim and Trump once exchanged threats of total destruction and crude insults after North Korea in 2017 carried out a series of high-profile weapons tests aimed at acquiring an ability to launch nuclear strikes on the US mainland.

Trump had said he would rain “fire and fury” on North Korea and derided Kim as “little rocket man” on a suicide mission, while Kim responded he would “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”

But they stopped such rhetoric and instead developed personal relationships after Kim abruptly reached out to Trump in 2018 for talks on the fate of his advancing nuclear arsenal.

They met three times, starting with a summit in Singapore in June 2018 that made Trump the first sitting US president to meet a North Korea leader since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

But their meetings made little headway since their second summit in Vietnam ended without any deal following disputes over US-led sanctions on North Korea.
Before their nuclear talks entered a stalemate, Trump said that he and Kim “fell in love.”

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App.