Trump upbeat on Kim summit
US President sees ‘brilliant potential’ for North Korea amid flurry of talks
US and North Korean officials met on Sunday at a border truce village as preparations resumed for a high-stakes, high-drama summit that President Donald Trump said held “brilliant potential” for the North.
“I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day,” Trump said on Twitter.
“Kim Jong-un agrees with me on this. It will happen!,” the president said, confirming that a US team “has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the summit” between himself and North Korean leader Kim. His upbeat language contrasted sharply to that of only three days earlier, when Trump cancelled the planned summit, citing “open hostility” from the North. An extraordinary flurry of diplomacy since then — much of it led by South Korea — appears to have put the meeting back on track.
Meanwhile, the US leader agreed to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ahead of the summit, a chance for Trump and Abe to coordinate their strategy amid concerns in Tokyo over the peace talks.
Events around the Korean peninsula have been moving at a dizzying pace over the last few days, with a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un that was on, then off, then apparently on again.
Here’s where we stand with what could be a historic meeting.
How did we get here?
A few months ago Kim and Trump were hurling insults and threats of war at each other.
The rhetoric began to cool during the Winter Olympics in South Korea, and by mid-March the two sides had agreed to a face-to-face. After some backand-forth, June 12 in Singapore was fixed on, but as May ticked over both sides began casting doubt on the meeting. Trump abruptly pulled the plug last week, only to apparently reverse course 24 hours later in the wake of Pyongyang’s emollient response.
How did talks get back on track?
Some say Trump’s sudden willingness to walk rattled Pyongyang, which has since dialled down its rhetoric and expressed a willingness to talk ‘at any time’. Others say the crisis was primarily averted by Kim and South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in, who made the extraordinary decision to meet in the Panmunjom truce village between the two Koreas.
Few American officials have more experience of dealing with North Koreans than Sung Kim. The Korean-born diplomat previously served as Washington’s ambassador in Seoul and was a special envoy during ultimately fruitless Six-Party Talks in the mid-2000s.
He is currently Washington’s envoy to the Philippines but has been called back to his old stomping ground — Trump has yet to nominate an ambassador to Seoul.
So is it going to happen?
Given the twists and turns, and the mercurial nature of the parties involved, few Korea watchers are prepared to say with any certainty. But most observers are confident the process is back on track — for now. In the last 48 hours Trump has sounded upbeat, saying the June 12 meeting will still go ahead, or that it could happen at a later date if more time is needed.
Usually these kind of summits are planned months, sometimes years in advance.
What are the stumbling blocks?
In a word, denuclearisation. Both sides say they want it, but there is a yawning gulf between their definitions.