Day after missile test, North says Trump sent letter offering coronavirus aid

North Korea on Sunday welcomed a letter sent by President Donald Trump offering help in fighting the coronavirus but warned that good relations between the leaders was not enough to restart nuclear talks.

Underscoring the continued threat, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a missile test on Saturday as the communist state pressed forward with weapons development amid the diplomatic deadlock.

Kim’s sister praised Trump for sending a letter “at a time as now when big difficulties and challenges lie in the way of developing the bilateral relations.”

Trump explained his plan to improve relations between the two countries, Kim Yo Jong said, without elaborating, in a statement on the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

He also “expressed his intent to render cooperation in the anti-epidemic work, saying that he was impressed by the efforts by the chairman to defend his people from the serious threat of epidemic,” she was quoted as saying.

The reclusive North has insisted that it has had no cases of the deadly virus, which first appeared late last year in China, then spread globally. South Korea and the United States have faced massive outbreaks.

However, U.S. officials have expressed skepticism that the North has escaped the pneumonia-like illness.

The State Department said last month that it feared the disease could cause a humanitarian disaster in the impoverished nation, offering to help aid groups.