Trump-kim meet in May or June
TRUMP’S ACCEPTING AN INVITATION TO TALKS DUMBFOUNDED FOREIGN POLICY EXPERTS AND CAUGHT HIS OWN STAFF OFF GUARD. BUT MANY ARE STILL SCEPTICAL ABOUT WHETHER THEY CAN SUCCEED.
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW: US President Donald Trump said on Monday he planned to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un next month or in early June and hoped the discussions would ultimately lead to an end of the North’s nuclear weapons programme.
“We’ll be meeting with them sometime in May or early June and I think there’ll be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully we’ll be able to make a deal on the de-nuking of North Korea,” Trump told reporters .
“They’ve said so. We’ve said so,” Trump added. “Hopefully, it’ll be a relationship that’s much different than it’s been for many, many years.”
North Korea has told the United States it is prepared to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula when Kim meets Trump, a US official told Reuters on Sunday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said US and North Korean officials have held secret contacts recently in which Pyongyang directly confirmed its willingness to hold the unprecedented summit.
The communications, still at a preliminary stage, have involved state department officials talking to North Korea, apparently through its United Nations mission, and intelligence officers from both sides using a separate back channel, the official said. Before that, Washington had relied mostly on South Korea’s assurances of Kim’s intentions.
Meanwhile, China has tightened trade controls on North Korea by banning exports of electronics and other goods that can be used in making weapons.
The ban announced late Sunday is part of UN Security Council sanctions imposed to press the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to stop developing nuclear and missile technology.
The latest ban covers “dual use” industrial components, metal allows and other materials that can be used in both civilian products and weapons. China accounts for nearly all of the isolated North’s trade.
N KOREAN MINISTER ON VISIT TO RUSSIA
North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho arrived in Moscow on Monday for a visit, the TASS news agency reported.
The agency reported that the minister had arrived by plane on a flight from Ashgabat in Turkmenistan.