Trump prepared to meet with Kim
UNITED STATES: US President Donald Trump has indicated that he would be open to meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and would be ‘‘honoured’’ to do so if the circumstances were right.
At a time when tensions and rhetoric between the US and North Korea have been ratcheted up over the hermit state’s nuclear ambitions, Trump made an unexpected diplomatic move yesterday.
‘‘If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honoured to do it,’’ the president told Bloomberg News. ‘‘Under the right circumstances, I would meet him.’’
He added: ‘‘Most political people would never say that, but I’m telling you, under the right circumstances, that I would meet with him.’’
Kim has not left North Korea since taking over from his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011. The last senior US official to meet a North Korean leader was Madeleine Albright, secretary of state under President Bill Clinton, who met Kim Jong-il in 2000.
On Saturday, North Korea launched what was believed to be a medium-range ballistic missile in an unsuccessful test. The reclusive state has conducted five nuclear tests plus a series of missile tests, and is believed to have made progress in developing intermediaterange and submarine-launched missiles.
The latest missile test took place shortly after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned of ‘‘catastrophic consequences’’ if North Korea failed to curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
In a series of comments at the weekend, Trump warned that he ‘‘would not be happy’’ if North Korea carried out a sixth nuclear test. Asked if that would lead to US military action, he said: ‘‘I don’t know. I mean, we’ll see.’’
He also warned recently that a ‘‘major, major conflict’’ with North Korea was possible but he would prefer to resolve the situation peacefully, with the help of China placing economic and political pressure on its ally to abandon its nuclear programme.
Meanwhile, a US Navy strike group arrived in the Sea of Japan at the weekend, where it carried out a drill with Japan’s Maritime Self-defence Force.
Japan yesterday dispatched its biggest warship, the Izumo, to protect a US military supply ship within Japanese waters while it refuels American warships.
The Japanese mission was the first operation of its kind since a controversial new security law championed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was enacted last year, allowing Japan to expand the role of its military overseas.
The Izumo is expected to protect the US supply ship while it refuels American warships in the region, including the USS Carl Vinson strike group, which started drills with the South Korean navy on Saturday.
A defiant North Korea responded to the Japanese move by declaring it would bolster its nuclear force ‘‘to the maximum’’ in a ‘‘consecutive and successive way at any moment and any place decided by its supreme leadership’’.
At the same time, CIA director Mike Pompeo was making an unannounced visit to the South Korean capital. He was believed to have arrived in Seoul to meet the head of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and other senior-ranking officials.
At the weekend, Trump called Kim Jong-un a ‘‘pretty smart cookie’’ and described how he had come to power at a young age despite having to deal with ‘‘some very tough people’’.
He said he had ‘‘no idea’’ if Kim was sane or not.
Trump’s statement that he would be open to meeting Kim echoed remarks he made on the campaign trail. At one rally, he said he would ‘‘speak to anybody’’, and this included Kim if there was a ‘‘10 per cent, 20 per cent chance I can talk him out of those nukes, because who the hell wants him to have nukes?’’.
The president’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, said: ‘‘The key part of the president’s statement was ‘under the right circumstances’, and those circumstances do not exist now.
‘‘But we want to hold out the possibility that if North Korea were ever serious about completely dismantling its nuclear capability and taking away the threat to the region and us, there is always the possibility of that occurring.’’
Spicer said it was ‘‘so far away from that possibility’’ that it would be ‘‘premature’’ to identify an individual who could lead negotiations. - Telegraph Group