The U.S. National Archives retrieved records from former President Donald Trump that were improperly removed from the White House in January 2021.

On Monday, the Washington Post reported that the National Archives and Records Administration, the agency responsible for maintaining presidential documents, retrieved a trove of archives from Trump's resort in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, that should have been turned over after he left the White House.

The material included memos, letters, notes, emails, faxes and other written communications, among them the letters Trump exchanged with foreign leaders.

Included in the documents were the letters Trump exchanged with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. Trump was the first sitting U.S. president to both set foot in North Korea and hold a personal meeting with his counterpart of a nation that has been accused of being a police state with a terrible record of human rights abuses.

Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton each visited North Korea with specific missions like bringing home U.S. hostages taken by Pyongyang or to encourage denuclearization talks with Washington, but the lack of formal relations, as well as the mutual distrust, were powerful disincentives for in-person contacts with the regime.

Trump boasted of being the first U.S. leader to hold direct meetings with North Korea. After his first summit with Kim in 2018, Trump gloated about his connection with Kim and their “very, very good relationship.” He noted that the two became pen pals.

“He wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters,” Trump said at a September 2018 rally. “We fell in love.”

Despite Trump's overtures, relations between the U.S. and North Korea remain strained. In a copy of one of these letters attained by investigative journalist Bob Woodward, Kim continued to praise Trump personally but appeared to lament the lack of progress in official relations.

"Your Excellency Mr. President, I still respect and lay my hopes on the will and determination that you showed in our first meeting to resolve the issue of our unique style that nobody had ever tried, and to write a new history. Today's reality is that without a new approach and the courage it takes, the prospects for resolution of the issue will only be bleak," Kim wrote in a letter from June 10, 2019, that also offered birthday wishes to Trump.

Trump has fawned over letters he receives from prominent leaders.

Following his victory in the 2016 presidential election, Trump said he received a “very nice letter” from Russian President Vladimir Putin that called for better relations. After entering the White House, Trump boasted about the “beautiful letter” left to him by former President Barack Obama.

According to the Washington Post, Obama’s letter was retrieved along with the ones from Kim.

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