Trump dangles W. House invite for Kim
US president says he is ‘very well-prepared’ for historic and potentially fraught summit
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday he is ‘very well prepared’ for a historic and potentially fraught summit with Kim Jong Un in five days, while hinting at the signing of a peace treaty and even a future White House visit by the North Korean dictator.
Hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Washington, Trump tried to quell concerns about his lack of diplomatic or foreign policy experience heading into the high-stakes talks.
“I’m very well prepared. I don’t think I have to prepare very much,” Trump said with characteristic bravado.
“It’s about attitude, it’s about willingness to get things done.”
Trump will meet Kim in Singapore on June 12, a firstever meeting between sitting North Korean and US leaders and one focused on Pyongyang’s ominous nuclear weapons programme.
Abe jetted into Washington hoping to ensure a decades-old tough united front on North Korea is not swept away by the history of the moment.
Since the first inkling that a Trump-Kim summit could be on the cards, Japan has repeatedly insisted that Washington be mindful not to let its guard down with the nuclear-armed regime in Pyongyang.
The Japanese prime minister will have been encouraged by Trump’s insistence – during a joint Rose Garden press conference – that the summit will be only the start of a process and his vow to raise the issue of Japanese abductees in the North.
But in their joint appearance, the mercurial US president also displayed his instinct to make the sensitive, technical diplomatic effort into a dramatic world-stopping event.
Trump mused that he was willing to consider normalising ties with North Korea, that a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War could be signed in Singapore and that a leader accused of gross human rights violations could visit the White House.
“We could absolutely sign an agreement and we’re looking at it,” said Trump.
“But that’s the beginning. Sounds a little bit strange, but that’s probably the easy part.”
Trump even went so far as to say he would consider inviting Kim to visit the United States if the June 12 summit in Singapore goes well.
“Maybe we’ll start with the White House, what do you think?” he said when aske if Kim would be invited to Washington or his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
When asked about eventual normalisation of ties, he said: “That is something I would hope to do that when everything is complete.”
The Japanese leader said he too was willing to have full relations with North Korea, but not before key demands were met.
“I wish to directly face North Korea and talk with them so that the abduction problem can be resolved quickly,” Abe said.
But Abe added there was no change in Japan’s policy to pursue ‘real peace in Northeast Asia’ and that if North Korea ‘is willing to take steps’ in the right direction, it will have a ‘bright future’.
The intensifying diplomacy on North Korea has so far left Abe as the odd man out: Trump is preparing to meet Kim Jong Un, while Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in have each already seen the North’s leader twice.
For Richard Armitage, a former senior diplomat in the George W Bush administration, Tokyo runs a very real risk of finding itself out in the cold after the Trump-Kim talks.
“We should absolutely prevent decoupling Japanese and US security,” he told AFP.
“This is and has been an aim of China and North Korea for a long time, and we can’t allow this to happen. That would be falling into a terrible trap.” — AFP
I’m very well prepared. I don’t think I have to prepare very much. It’s about attitude, it’s about willingness to get things done. Donald Trump, US President