Trump confident North Korean talks will soon be back on track
DONALD TRUMP has warmly welcomed North Korea’s promising response to his abrupt withdrawal from a potentially historic summit and said “we’re talking to them now” about putting it back on track.
“Everybody plays games,” said the US president, who often boasts about his own negotiating tactics and skill. Mr Trump said it was even possible the summit could take place on the originally planned date, June 12.
“They very much want to do it, we’d like to do it,” he said.
Earlier he had called the North’s reaction to his letter cancelling the summit “warm and productive”.
That was different to his letter on Thursday to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, blaming “tremendous anger and open hostility” from Pyongyang for the US withdrawal.
The tone from both sides was warmer yesterday. First, North Korea issued a statement saying it was still “willing to give the US time and opportunities” to reconsider talks “at any time, at any format”.
Vice foreign minister Kim Kye Gwan called Mr Trump’s withdrawal “unexpected” and “very regrettable”, and said the cancellation of the talks showed “how grave the status of historically deep-rooted hostile North Korea-US relations is and how urgently a summit should be realised to improve ties”.
Then Mr Trump replied in turn, saying it was “very good news”, and “we will soon see where it will lead, hopefully to long and enduring prosperity and peace. Only time (and talent) will tell!”
The president’s surprise exit from the planned talks had capped weeks of high-stakes brinkmanship between the two unpredictable leaders.
The US announcement came not long after Mr Kim appeared to make good on his promise to demolish his country’s nuclear test site, but it also followed escalating frustration from North Korea over comments from Trump aides about US expectations for the North’s “denuclearisation”.