Trump says will know fate of Kim summit next week
Pompeo says preparations still on for June 12 meet
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday cast further doubt on the upcoming summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, saying that the fate of the meet will be known next week.
“We will know next week about Singapore and if we go I think it will be a great thing for North Korea,” he said
The summit, scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, would offer a historic chance for peace. But there also is the risk of a diplomatic failure that would allow the North to revive and advance its nuclear weapons programme.
Trump’s statement seemed to contradict his own officials, who say preparations are still underway. Secretary of state Mike Pompeo , who was deposing at a hearing of the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee on Wednesday, seemed to indicate there were no changes in the plans yet.
“The maximum pressure campaign of diplomatic and economic sanctions is bearing fruit with the historic meeting set to take place on June 12th,” he said, adding that the administration was “clear-eyed” about North Korea’s record on such pease efforts and the goal was “complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”.
Pompeo, who was director of the CIA before becoming secretary of state in April when Trump fired Rex Tillerson, has met twice with Kim in Pyongyang. On his most recent trip he brought back three Americans who had been held by North Korea.
Trump’s newfound hesitation appeared to reflect recent setbacks in efforts to bring about reconciliation between the two Koreas, as well as concern whether the self-proclaimed dealmaker can deliver a nuclear accord with Kim Jong Un.
Trump said Kim had not met unspecified “conditions” for the summit. But Trump also said he believed Kim was “serious” about negotiations, and Moon expressed “every confidence” in Trump’s ability to hold the summit and bring about peace.
RUSSIAN MINISTER PLANS TO VISIT N KOREA
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov plans to visit North Korea, Russian news agencies quoted a foreign ministry spokeswoman as saying on Wednesday.
Dates for the trip have yet to be agreed, she said. Earlier, the RBC news portal wrote that Lavrov would travel on May 31 — before the proposed summit between Trump and Kim on June 12.