I’ll sit down for peace talks with Kim Jong-un, insists Trump
DONALD TRUMP last night offered an unexpected diplomatic olive branch to North Korea, indicating he would “certainly be open” to sitting down for talks with Kim Jong-un.
In an interview broadcast in the US shortly after he arrived in Tokyo at the start of a marathon 12-day Asia tour, Mr Trump said it would be “not a bad thing” to meet the dictator.
He said: “I would sit down with anybody. I don’t think it’s strength or weakness, I think sitting down with people is not a bad thing. So I would certainly be open to doing that, but we’ ll see where it goes, I think we’re far too early.”
His comments followed months of escalating rhetoric between the two leaders in which Mr Trump threatened to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea, and called diplomacy a “waste of time”.
Mr Trump’s remarks also came as Pentagon officials released a stark new assessment that the only way to neutralise North Korea’s nuclear weapon sites “with complete certainty” would be through a ground invasion.
In a letter to members of Congress, Rear Admiral Michael J Dumont, vice-director of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, also warned that, in a conflict, North Korea may use biological weapons, including “nerve, blister, blood and choking agents”.
Mr Trump also confirmed he would almost certainly meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a summit in Vietnam later in his trip and seek his support for reining in the North Korean leader’s regime.
The US president said: “I think it’s expected we’ll meet with Putin, yeah, we want Putin’s help on North Korea. And we’ll be meeting with a lot of different leaders.”
He indicated a decision would be made soon about whether to add North Korea to a list of state sponsors of terrorism. Mr Trump also launched a new tactic, seeking to drive a wedge between the North Korean public and their leaders, calling them “great, industrious people, much warmer than the world really knows or understands”.
North Korean state media called Mr Trump “spiritually unstable” and warned him against making “reckless remarks”.
In Tokyo, Mr Trump played nine holes of golf with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and Hideki Matsuyama, the world’s number three golfer.
On Twitter, he called Mr Abe a “marvellous friend” and said they had a “spirited conversation” on the course.
Mr Abe served Mr Trump American hamburgers for lunch and the two men signed caps that said “Donald and Shinzo Make Alliance Even Greater”.
The president did not temper his rhetoric about North Korea in a speech to US and Japanese military personnel at a US airbase in Tokyo, saying that “together with our allies, America’s warriors are prepared to defend our nation using the full range of our unmatched capabilities”.
“No dictator, no regime, no nation should ever underestimate American resolve,” he added. In a remark that held the potential to cause widespread offence in a country where America killed around 140,000 people in 1945 – when it dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the President added: “Every once in a while, in the past, they underestimated us. It was not
‘Mr Trump’s aides were said to be vigilant that he would not overshadow the choreographed nature of the visit with a rogue tweet’
pleasant for them, was it?”
Late yesterday, Mr Trump faced a more delicate diplomatic task as he and Melania Trump, the first lady, were due to meet Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.
Officials in Japan, home to a culture that is deeply rooted in rituals and customs, were reportedly feeling wary of how Mr Trump would handle the meeting.
Since becoming president, Mr Trump has turned heads with unusual greetings, ranging from an interminable handshake with President Emmanuel Macron of France to an awkward hand-clutching incident with British Prime Minister Theresa May.
His predecessor Barack Obama came under fire for breaking the US presidential protocol of refusing to defer to royalty when he bent to a near-90degree angle when he met the emperor in Tokyo in 2009. It was thought unlikely that Mr Trump would bow.
Mr Trump’s aides were said to be vigilant that he not overshadow the carefully choreographed nature of the visit with a rogue tweet or off-the-cuff comment.
Joseph DeThomas, a US foreign service veteran who has served every president since Jimmy Carter, said of the Asia trip: “It’s the first time in my life that I’m saying: ‘Oh, please don’t let the president go.’
“I don’t see a lot of good coming out of this and I see lots of risk of an unfiltered comment generating lots of consequences.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)