Trump: Kim will honour commitment

UNITED STATES: President Donald Trump said he believes North Korea will abide by its pledge to suspend missile tests while he prepares for a summit by May with the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

Trump noted in a tweet that North Korea has refrained from such tests since November and said Kim ‘‘has promised not to do so through our meetings.’’ ‘‘I believe they will honour that commitment,’’ the president wrote.

The president continued the optimistic tone yesterday when he led a rally for the Republican candidate in a special House race in western Pennsylvania.

When he mentioned Kim’s name, the crowd booed but Trump responded: ‘‘No, it’s very positive ... no, after the meeting you may do that, but now we have to be very nice because let’s see what happens, let’s see what happens.’’

Trump shocked many inside and outside his administration Friday when he told South Korean officials who had just returned from talks in North Korea that he would be willing to accept Kim’s meeting invitation.

Earlier yesterday, Trump tweeted that China was pleased that he was pursuing a diplomatic solution rather than ‘‘going with the ominous alternative’’ and that Japan is ‘‘very enthusiastic’’ about the agreed-to talks.

Trump has spoken with both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe since Friday’s announcement and said Xi ‘‘appreciates that the US is working to solve the problem diplomatically rather than going with the ominous alternative’’.

He had previously threatened North Korea with ‘‘fire and fury like the world has never seen’’. He also said China, North Korea’s most important ally and trading partner, ‘‘continues to be helpful!’’

Trump has repeatedly urged China to do more to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear programme.

Trump said in another tweet that Abe is ‘‘is very enthusiastic about talks with North Korea’’ and that the two discussed how to narrow the US-Japan trade deficit. Trump wrote, ‘‘It will all work out!’’

The president will need to adopt an unfamiliar set of traits patience, persistence, clear goals and conditions - and be prepared to walk away when he meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, people who have negotiated with Kim’s regime say.

Trump’s apparently impromptu decision to begin setting up talks contrasts with Kim’s situation North Korea has prepared deliberately for decades for a meeting with the sitting US president as a major step toward gaining international legitimacy.

Negotiations with the North Korean regime are ‘‘very painstaking and, frankly, painful,’’ said Christopher Hill, who served as US ambassador to South Korea and assistant secretary of state under President George W. Bush.

‘‘You think you have an agreement one minute and then you don’t the next minute.’’

Heading toward the talks, the biggest mystery is Kim himself, who is not known to have met with another head of state since taking charge in 2011. The South Korean government’s analysis of the dictator may help, Hill said.

‘‘Beyond that, we only have Dennis Rodman to go on.’’