Trump plays down chances of quick breakthrough as N. Koreans bring letter

NEW YORK/ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday played down the chances of a quick deal to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons as a delegation from Pyongyang headed to meet him with a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, suggesting a proposed summit may be back on.

Trump told Reuters he was still hoping for an unprecedented meeting with Kim on June 12 in Singapore to push for North Korean “denuclearization,” although he conceded it might require more time to reach that goal.

“I’d like to see it done in one meeting,” Trump said in an interview on Air Force One. “But often times that’s not the way deals work. There’s a very good chance that it won’t be done in one meeting or two meetings or three meetings. But it’ll get done at some point.”

North Korea has rejected previous U.S. calls for its unilateral nuclear disarmament and argued instead for a “phased” approach to denuclearization of the entire Korean peninsula, which in the past has also meant removal of the U.S. nuclear umbrella protecting South Korea and Japan.

In Pyongyang, Kim said his country’s will to see denuclearization on the Korean peninsula remained “unchanged, consistent and fixed,” but said he hoped that and improved North Korea-U.S. relations would both be solved on a “stage-by-stage” basis.

Kim said he hoped to find a “solution to meet the interests of each other through a new method in a new era and under a new situation and the solution of the issues will progress through effective and constructive dialogue and negotiation,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Kim made the remarks in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the two men also agreed their countries should hold a bilateral summit this year.

Until this year, Kim had made no visits outside his country since taking over from his father as leader in 2011.

But he has had two summit meetings in recent weeks with South Korea and made two visits to China as part of a campaign of diplomatic outreach aimed at easing Pyongyang’s isolation and U.S.-led international sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a North Korean delegation, headed by high-ranking official Kim Yong Chol, with whom he held two days of talks with in New York, would make a rare visit to the White House on Friday and give Trump a letter from Kim. LONDON, (Reuters) - The aluminium empire of Russian magnate Oleg Deripaska is in close contact with the U.S. Treasury, but needs until mid-summer to come up with a plan to meet U.S. requirements to escape sanctions, the chairman of its holding company told Reuters.

The U.S. Treasury in April imposed sanctions against billionaire Deripaska and the eight companies in which he is a large shareholder, including giant aluminium exporter Rusal, in response to what it called “malign activities” by Russia.

Following pressure to soften its stance from business groups, Washington suggested it might lift the sanctions against Rusal and parent En+ if Deripaska cut his En+ stake to below 50 percent and introduced independent board members.

Under the current sanctions, U.S. businesses need to wind down aluminium trading with Rusal by October, while trading in Rusal’s and En+’s shares and debt should be discontinued by June 5.

En+ chairman Greg Barker told Reuters he had asked the U.S. Treasury to extend the licence to carry on trading the shares until September while he works on fleshing out a plan to get En+ and Rusal off the sanctions list.

“We are seeking an extension of the general licence to allow us the time to put together the remaining building blocs in order to present a finalised proposal to the U.S. government by mid summer,” Barker said in a phone interview.

Deripaska controls 66 percent of En+, which in turn controls 48 percent of Rusal. Discussions over reducing Deripaska’s stake could be complicated by the fact his ex-wife Polina also controls 5.8 percent of En+.

Barker, who met Irish business minister Heather Humphreys on Thursday, is seeking the support of Ireland to persuade the Treasury to back the plan.