Was Kim Jong Un Trolling Trump With Huge Envelope?

Kim Yong Chol became the most senior North Korean diplomat to visit the White House in 18 years on Friday, and presented a letter from Kim Jong Un to President Donald Trump.

The pair posed for a photograph in the Oval Office in front of a portrait of Thomas Jefferson, with Trump grinning broadly. The president went on to announce that the canceled summit with Kim was back on.

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President Trump receives a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un via a top envoy from Pyongyang on June 1. White House

But foremost on the minds of many observers was something more prosaic than issues on the future of relations between the nations: Why was the envelope presented to Trump so big?

WH releases pic of letter from Kim Jong Un. It’s a very big letter. pic.twitter.com/GQNbvOXcSs

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) June 1, 2018

Some speculated that Kim was trolling Trump, with the large envelope making the president's hands appear small. The president is famously sensitive about the size of his hands.

Clever power move by North Korea to make Trump’s hands look as small as possible in every photo https://t.co/kSlrwt2rQ9

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) June 1, 2018

As Trump is never one to be outdone, how big a letter would he send back, others asked.

I’m looking forward to seeing the size of the letter that Trump sends back. https://t.co/9OcnHiKHqU

— Dodes (@racheld) June 2, 2018

Speaking to the Associated Press, Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University, offered his views on the probable contents of the letter, and perhaps a more plausible explanation for the size of the envelope.

"Kim would begin by praising Trump's leadership and his 'bold decision' to build up the summit," said Koh, who is also a policy adviser to the South Korean president. "He will then talk about denuclearization, ending hostility and normalizing relations between the countries."

He told the agency that a letter delivered by Kim's sister to South Korean President Moon Jae-in in February was contained a large blue folder emblazoned with a golden seal, and speculated that the envelope to Trump could contain a similar folder.

Koh said that the emphasis on the letter may signal the importance Kim is willing to place on written letters as a diplomatic tool, with his father and grandfather largely forgoing official communications with foreign states, favoring instead telegrams to their allies in Beijing.

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