Share

Does North Korea's Kim get Trump tweet alerts?

How people stay informed in the Hermit State of North Korea is always a question, and US President Donald Trump may have answered it Thursday: By Twitter alerts.

Trump said it only took Kim Jong Un 10 minutes to respond to his tweeted proposal for a landmark meeting in June at the border of North and South Korea.

That suggested that someone in Pyongyang - perhaps Kim himself - keeps a minute-by-minute watch on what the US tweetmaster-in-chief is saying on social media.

"When I was flying to South Korea I had the idea, you know what, I am going to South Korea, right next to North Korea, right with the border, right near there," Trump told the New Hampshire Today radio programme.

"There was no way that anybody knows how to get Kim Jong Un. How do you get him?" Trump said.

"I put out a tweet: 'Hey, I am going to South Korea. If you want to meet for a couple of minutes, let's meet.'"

"And I put it out and he was calling within 10 minutes."

Trump appeared to reject speculation that the meeting had already been discussed quietly before he tweeted on June 29 from the G20 summit in Osaka: "If Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!"

A little more than a day later, Trump became the first serving US president to step foot in North Korea, where he held brief talks with Kim.

"I mean it's the craziest thing," Trump, an early and now prolific Twitter user, told the radio programme.

Twitter, he said, is "an incredible way of communicating for me... It's a way of getting the word out".

Kim himself has not taken up tweets to communicate his edicts and invitations.

But he appears to be watching.

GET THE NEWS at your fingertips and download the News24 app for Android here now. Get it for your iPhone here.

KEEP UPDATED on the latest news by subscribing to our FREE newsletter.

- FOLLOW News24 on Twitter

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Voting Booth
Should the Proteas pick Faf du Plessis for the T20 World Cup in West Indies and the United States in June?
Please select an option Oops! Something went wrong, please try again later.
Results
Yes! Faf still has a lot to give ...
66% - 509 votes
No! It's time to move on ...
34% - 268 votes
Vote
Rand - Dollar
19.04
-0.1%
Rand - Pound
23.80
-0.0%
Rand - Euro
20.42
-0.1%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.42
-0.2%
Rand - Yen
0.12
+0.1%
Platinum
930.00
+0.5%
Palladium
993.00
+0.3%
Gold
2,334.45
+0.1%
Silver
27.49
+0.2%
Brent Crude
89.01
+1.1%
Top 40
68,437
-0.2%
All Share
74,329
-0.3%
Resource 10
62,119
+2.7%
Industrial 25
102,531
-1.4%
Financial 15
15,802
-0.2%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE