Trump dangles White House visit for Kim

WASHINGTON • The United States hopes to one day normalize relations with North Korea, President Donald Trump said Thursday, adding that he would invite North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the United States if next week’s historic summit goes well.

Trump signalled that a grand bargain to reverse decades of enmity is not on the table for his unprecedented meeting Tuesday in Singapore with Kim. But he sounded upbeat as he described the North Korean leader as sincere about remaking the future for his impoverished country.

“We would certainly like to see normalization, yes,” Trump said following two hours of meetings with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

That would come after what Trump described as a diplomatic process that could include an agreement to safeguard Kim from the threat of ouster at the hands of the United States.

“I don’t think it will be one meeting,” Trump said. Trump last year derided Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and vowed to destroy nuclear-armed North Korea if it threatened the United States or its allies, but has recently spoken about Kim more positively as he promotes the summit as a chance to strike a historic deal. On Thursday he confirmed rumours that an invitation to the White House could be in the offing for Kim, the third generation of his family to hold absolute rule in the isolated communist country sometimes called the Hermit Kingdom.

“I think he would look at it very favourably, so I think that could happen,” Trump said.

Skeptics, including many Republicans, have worried that Trump is giving up leverage simply by meeting with Kim, since doing so implies that the North Korean leader holds equal status with the U.S. leader. An invitation to the White House, unthinkable only months ago, would go much further in conferring status as a global leader on a man who until this year had not left his own borders since taking office in 2011.

The Trump administration pursued tough economic sanctions against North Korea under a “maximum pressure” campaign designed to force Kim to bargain over his nuclear arsenal.

Trump said Thursday that he has stopped using the “maximum pressure” phrase because “we are going into a friendly negotiation.” Earlier Thursday, Trump proclaimed himself ready for the summit, which is taking place with no precooked outcome.

“I think I’m very well prepared,” Trump told reporters. “I don’t think I have to prepare very much. It’s about the attitude. It’s about willingness to get things done.”