Diplomatic efforts gain momentum
Summit looking more likely as officials meet to discuss plans on two continents
Rapid-fire diplomacy is playing out on two continents in advance of an “expected” summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, the strengthening resolve coming after a series of high-risk, highreward gambits by the two leaders.
Officials wouldn’t say that the June 12 Singapore summit was back on, but preparations on both sides of the Pacific proceeded as if it were.
Two weeks of hard-nosed negotiating, including a communications blackout by the North and a public cancellation by the United States, appeared to be paying off as the two sides engaged in their most substantive talks to date about the meeting.
Trump tweeted yesterday that he had a “great team” working on the summit, confirming that top North Korean official Kim Yong Chol was headed to New York for talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Meanwhile, teams of US officials arrived at the Korean demilitarised zone and in Singapore to prepare for the meeting. The US officials are led by Sung Kim, the US ambassador to the Philippines, who formerly was the US ambassador to Seoul and a top negotiator with North Korea in past nuclear talks.
Trump will host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on June 7 to coordinate their thinking ahead of the summit. Trump hosted South Korean President Moon Jae In last week.
Russia, meanwhile, said its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would travel to North Korea today for talks with North Korea's foreign policy chief to discuss bilateral issues as well as the overall situation on the Korean peninsula.
Kim Jong Un has also had two meetings in recent weeks with Chinese President Xi Jingping.
Trump wrote on Twitter yesterday that he had decided to “terminate” the summit last week in an open letter to Kim that stressed American military might, but also left the door ajar for future communication.
White House officials characterised the letter as a negotiating tactic designed to bring the North back to the table after a provocative statement and a decision to skip planning talks and ignore preparatory phone calls.
But aides almost immediately suggested the meeting could still get back on track. And after a suitably conciliatory statement from North Korea, Trump said the same.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that since the letter, “the North Koreans have been engaging” with the US.
Trump views the meeting as a legacy-defining opportunity to make the nuclear deal that has evaded others, but he pledged to walk away from the meeting if he believed the North wasn’t serious about discussing dismantling its nuclear programme.
US officials cast the on-again, offagain drama as in keeping with Trump’s deal-making style, and reflective of the technically still-warring leaders testing each other.