Trump says ‘all ready’ for meet with N Korea’s Kim
DIPLOMATIC FLURRY Japan’s PM in US to coordinate approach to Pyongyang
WASHINGTON/SEOUL: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12 was “ready to go.”
“Looks like the meeting is set. The summit is all ready to go. Subject always to change. You never know in this world,” Trump told reporters as he welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White House.
Abe said he hoped the summit would be a dramatic and transformational moment for Northeast Asia. Trump said North Korea has to give up its nuclear weapons, and the US could add more sanctions if necessary.
“If they don’t denuclearise, that will not be acceptable.
“We cannot take sanctions off. The sanctions are extraordinarily powerful. And I could add a lot more but I’ve chosen not to do that at this time, but that may happen.”
Trump said he thought he was very well-prepared for the meeting with Kim. “I don’t think I have to prepare very much. It’s about attitude. It’s about willingness to get things done,” he said.
“I think it’s going to be a very fruitful meeting.”
Responding to a question, he said it will be more than a photo-op. “Well, it’s gonna be much more than a photo-op. I think it’s a process. I’ve told you that many times before. I think it’s not a one meeting deal. It would be wonderful if it were .... at a minimum, we’ll start with perhaps a good relationship.”
NORTH KOREA RAZING MISSILE TEST FACILITIES
Satellite imagery indicates that North Korea is razing some facilities used for testing one of its most dangerous missiles after Kim Jong Un, announced a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.
A “key missile test stand” that was used for testing missile ejections from canisters was demolished at a test site near Kusong in North Korea’s northwest, Joseph S Bermudez Jr, an expert on the country’s weapons systems, said.
The Kusong test site was being monitored by missile experts because North Korea launched its first solid-fuel midrange ballistic missile Pukguksong-2 from there in February last year.
SOUTH SEEKING EARLY PACT TO END WAR
Seoul is in three-way talks with Pyongyang and Washington for an early agreement on formally ending the decades-old Korean War, it said on Thursday ahead of the Trump-Kim summit.
The 1950-53 conflict ceased with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the two sides technically at war, and President Trump said last week that it would be one of the issues on the table at the historic summit. “We talked about ending the war,” Trump said following a meeting with a senior North Korean envoy.