What 'big, beautiful' deal could restart Trump-Kim talks?

Hopes are up, but it may take more to entice N. Korean leader to get back to talks

- Wendy Teo

SEOUL - Seven years have passed since the Trump-Kim summit was held in Singapore in June 2018. With Mr Donald Trump back in the White House for a second term, and liberal President Lee Jae-myung newly installed in South Korea's Blue House and pledging to improve ties with Pyongyang, hopes are growing for a restart in engagement talks with North Korea.

After all, Mr Trump has made it clear that he is eager to rekindle his bromance with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, having famously said that they "fell in love" over exchanges of "love letters".

Unfortunately, it appears that it will take more than just another love letter to relight the spark between them.

Online North Korean news outlet NK News reported on June 11, citing a "high-level source", that repeated attempts to deliver a letter from Mr Trump to Mr Kim have been met with rebuffs by North Korean diplomats based in New York. The timeline of the deliveries and rejections is unclear.

In response, a White House spokesperson said on June 12 that Mr Trump remains "receptive to correspondence with Kim Jong Un" but declined to comment on the rebuffed letter, saying that only Mr Trump had the answer.

What is a "big, beautiful" deal, to riff on the name of a recent spending Bill introduced by Mr Trump's Republican Party, that the US leader could offer to entice Mr Kim to get back to talks?

Attempts at reconciliation have come not just from Mr Trump. South Korea's Mr Lee has also extended an olive branch to the North, by taking swift action to unravel the acrimonious actions with North Korea that had spiralled downwards under his predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol's conservative government.