Trump says Kim will stop short-range missile tests when US-South Korean drills end

• Trump also said that Kim stated he would like to start negotiations as soon as the exercises are over.
• The U.S. and South Korea militaries began drills this week.
• "I look forward to seeing Kim Jong Un in the not too distant future," Trump said.
• He called the exercises "ridiculous and" expensive in a series of Twitter posts. 

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

President Donald Trump said Saturday that Kim Jong Un sent him a letter in which the North Korean dictator promised to halt short-range missile tests when the U.S. and South Korea militaries stop conducting joint exercises.

Trump also said that Kim stated he would like to start negotiations as soon as the exercises are over. The U.S. and South Korea militaries began drills this week.

"I look forward to seeing Kim Jong Un in the not too distant future," Trump said. He called the exercises "ridiculous and" expensive in a series of Twitter posts. 

In a letter to me sent by Kim Jong Un, he stated, very nicely, that he would like to meet and start negotiations as soon as the joint U.S./South Korea joint exercise are over. It was a long letter, much of it complaining about the ridiculous and expensive exercises. It was.....

....also a small apology for testing the short range missiles, and that this testing would stop when the exercises end. I look forward to seeing Kim Jong Un in the not too distant future! A nuclear free North Korea will lead to one of the most successful countries in the world!

North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles into the sea early Saturday local time. Pyongyang has fired a series of short-range missiles in recent weeks.

Trump has repeatedly said he is not concerned about North Korea's short-range missile tests and they wouldn't pose an obstacle to holding talks with Kim.

"These are short-range missiles -- we never discussed that," Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn last Thursday. "We discussed nuclear. A lot of other countries test that kind of missile."

Trump met with Kim at the de-militarized zone between the North and South in June, the first sitting U.S. president to do so. The meeting was the first after their failed summit in Vietnam, which broke up without any kind of agreement.