SEOUL: Pyongyang has come down heavily on Washington in a surprise move, just days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un received an “excellent” personal letter from US President Donald Trump.

In a statement Wednesday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said that recent comments by top Trump advisers over sanctions and the decision to call out North Korea human rights violations in two reports had amounted to “hostility” and vicious slander.

Both annual State Department reports named North Korea among the world’s worst violators of human rights.

The statement was published in North Korean state media as Trump prepared to arrive in Osaka, Japan for the G20 summit.

Trump will then travel to Seoul to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and is considering a visit to the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas, a South Korean government official said.

Denuclearization talks between the United States and North Korea have been stalled since a summit between two leaders in Hanoi in February.

(Agencies)