Trump letter to Kim delivered to top N. Korean diplomat
Singapore, Aug 4 : A US ambassador has given North Koreas top diplomat a letter from President Donald Trump to Pyongyang leader Kim Jong-un at a conference of Southeast Asia nations in Singapore, the State Department said on Saturday.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that US Ambassador Sung Kim, travelling with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, gave the letter from the President to North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho immediately after they shook hands during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit here, the Washington Post reported.
According to Nauert, Pompeo told Ri that they "should talk again soon" and Ri replied in the affirmative. "There are many productive conversations to be had," the North Korean official said.
Beyond the brief exchange at the group photo, Pompeo and Ri did not have a more formal meeting.
Nauert called it a "step in the right direction" from where the US and North Korea were a year ago.
"We had a quick, polite exchange," Pompeo wrote on Twitter. "Our US delegation also had the opportunity to deliver (Trump's) reply to Chairman Kim's letter."
This was a reference to Kim's recent letter to Trump, which the latter described as "nice" in a Twitter post.
During the event, Pompeo described himself as "optimistic" that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula remains an achievable goal, but one that will take time.
"From my meetings here, the world is united in seeing this achieved," he said. "There has not been single country that hasn't thanked the US for its efforts in moving the world towards the possibility of achieving this. … I'm optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline, and the world will celebrate what the UN Security Council has demanded."
Earlier Saturday, Pompeo suggested the timeline will be determined in large part by the North Korean leader.
"The ultimate timeline for denuclearization will be set by Chairman Kim, at least in part," he said in an interview with Channel NewsAsia.
"The decision is his. He made a commitment and we're very hopeful that over the coming weeks and months we can make substantial progress towards that and put the North Korean people on a trajectory towards a brighter future very quickly."
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Congress cites Maniben Patel's diary entries, asks Rajnath to apologise for Babri claim
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Saturday shared diary entries of Vallabhbhai Patel's daughter from a book to rebut Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's claim that India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, wanted to build the Babri masjid using public funds, and demanded that Singh apologise for spreading "falsehoods".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, claimed the defence minister was spreading falsehoods to “improve his relationship” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Here is Maniben's original diary entry in Gujarati on pages 212-213 in the book ‘Samarpit Padchhayo Sardarno’ by CA R S Patel 'Aaresh', published by Sardar Patel Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Society, 2025,” Ramesh said on X, sharing screenshots of the relevant pages from the book.
“There is a huge difference between what is contained in the original diary entry and what Rajnath Singh ji and his fellow ‘distorians’ are propagating,” Ramesh said.
“The Defence Minister must apologise for the falsehoods he is spreading, simply to improve his relationship with the PM,” he claimed.
The Congress had earlier termed Singh's claim that Nehru wanted to build the Babri masjid using public funds a “lie” and “WhatsApp university story”, and said the defence minister should not walk in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's path.
Addressing a gathering at Sadhli village in Gujarat's Vadodara district last Tuesday, Singh said Nehru wanted to build the Babri masjid using public funds, but Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel didn't allow his plans to succeed.
The BJP had cited a book by Vallabhbhai Patel's daughter to double down on Singh's claims, and said the first prime minister also said he felt "repelled" by some of the temples in south India despite their beauty.
“The source of what Rajnath Singh said is the 'Inside Story of Sardar Patel, Diary of Maniben Patel'," BJP Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi had said at a press conference at the party headquarters while responding to media queries on the issue.
Trivedi claimed that on Page 24 of the book, it is written that Nehru also raised the question of the Babri mosque, but Sardar Patel made it clear that the government could not spend any money on building a mosque.
