TRUMP AND KIM SUMMIT ON THE LINE AS SOUTH’S MOON VISITS THE WHITE HOUSE
Moon Jae-in is on a mission to Washington to salvage a rare diplomatic opening between the US and Pyongyang
US president Donald Trump last night said that a planned summit with Kim Jong-un may not take place next month, despite his belief that the North Korean leader is serious about denuclearisation.
“It may not work out for June 12,” Mr Trump said of the historical meeting in Singapore. “If it does not happen, maybe it will happen later.
“So there’s a very substantial chance it won’t work out, and that’s OK. That doesn’t mean it won’t work out over a period of time.”
Mr Trump began talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House last night.
But he said he believed the North Korean leader was willing to give up nuclear weapons, amid fears about an apparent about turn by North Korea.
If the deal worked out, Mr Trump said: “He will be extremely happy.”
Mr Moon’s visit to the White House comes amid renewed uncertainty about Mr Kim’s intentions.
He declared “an era of peace” last month at a meeting with Mr Moon but Pyongyang abruptly cancelled another round of talks last week, pinning the decision on the US and South Korea moving ahead with long-planned military exercises.
Mr Trump yesterday said that the US was prepared to guarantee Mr Kim’s safety as part of a deal aimed at denuclearising the Korean Peninsula. If they reached an accord, Mr Kim would “be very proud” of what he did for North Korea 25 years in the future, the US president said.
Mr Moon sent his own national security adviser to the White House in March, carrying an offer of talks and word that North Korea may be willing to abandon nuclear weapons.
Mr Trump surprised his guests, his own aides and the world by accepting the meeting, seeing an opportunity to “do a deal” and avoid military confrontation. Pyongyang is on the verge of marrying nuclear and missile technology that would allow it to hit the continental US.
Since then, there has been a series of intra-Korean meetings, two trips to Pyongyang by Mike Pompeo – first as CIA director then as America’s Secretary of State – and three American citizens have been released by the North.
But North Korea’s willingness to get rid of its nuclear weapons is now in serious doubt.
This month, Pyongyang denounced US demands for “unilateral nuclear abandonment” and cancelled at the last minute a high-level meeting with the South in protest against military manoeuvres between Seoul and Washington.
Mr Trump responded by saying the meeting may or may not take place.
Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday night there was “no question” that Mr Trump would be prepared to walk away from the talks with Mr Kim if it appeared as if they would not yield results. He said Mr Trump was not just after a public relations victory.
Mr Pence said the Clinton and Bush governments were played by North Korea when they tried to convince Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions but the Trump government would not make the same mistakes.
“It would be a great mistake for Kim to think he could play Donald Trump,” he said.
Mr Trump also surprised many by offering Mr Kim a security guarantee allowing him to stay in power, and suggested that his apparent about-face might have been at the behest of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“It could very well be that he’s influencing Kim Jong-un,” Mr Trump said, referring the pair’s recent second round of talks in a month. “We’ll see what happens.”
Analysts regarded North Korea’s slowdown as evidence that Pyongyang may have been
North Korea’s willingness to get rid of its nuclear weapons is now in serious doubt
playing for time, hoping to ease sanctions and “maximum pressure”, or of South Korea exaggerating the prospects of a deal.
“The current tension reflects a wide and dangerous expectation gap between the US and North Korea,” said Eric Gomez of the Cato Institute in Washington.
“Denuclearisation is not off the table for the North but it expects the US to end the socalled hostile policy as a condition for denuclearisation.”
It is far from clear what that means but it could include the withdrawal of 30,000 US troops from the Korean Peninsula.
With only weeks to go and little clarity on what will be discussed or what happens if the talks fail, some Korea watchers predict fireworks during Mr Trump’s talks with Mr Moon.
“It increasingly looks like the Moon administration overstated North Korea’s willingness to deal,” said Robert Kelly of Pusan National University in Busan, South Korea.
Yonhap news agency quoted a Seoul official as saying Mr Moon would probably “tell President Trump what to expect and what not to expect from Kim”.