Trump raises hope for Kim talks
Year after ‘Rocket Man,’ U.N. told N. Korean leader’s ‘terrific’
UNITED NATIONS — President Donald Trump raised hopes at the United Nations on Monday that a second meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un could occur “quite soon,” expressing optimism that his efforts to negotiate a denuclearization deal are still on track.
The conciliatory tone came one year after he used his debut at the U.N. to deride the autocrat as “Little Rocket Man” and threaten to “totally destroy North Korea” if the U.S. were forced to defend itself or allies.
Trump praised Kim as “very open” and “terrific,” despite the glacial pace of progress toward denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.
Trump told reporters that the talks are “moving very well” and that the two sides are making “tremendous progress,” even though he had abruptly canceled a visit from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang earlier this month.
U.S. intelligence agencies have said that North Korea, which has not tested a ballistic missile since agreeing to the summit months ago, continues to work on technical advancements in its nuclear arsenal in secret.
But the tone has warmed again since Kim met last week with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who made his first visit to Pyongyang. Moon said Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization by 2021, which would mark the end of Trump’s first term.
“We have many things in store,” Trump said. He noted Kim had sent him a letter requesting a second meeting. “We’ll be doing that,” he said.
The softer tone toward North Korea — once threatened with “fire and fury” — has been replaced by rosy optimism, with Trump reserving tough rhetoric for another potential nuclear aspirant and strategic foe: Iran.
“It was a different world,” Trump said Monday of his onetime moniker for the North Korean leader. “That was a dangerous time. This is one year later, a much different time.”
Trump began his second visit to the U.N. with a brief meeting on the global drug trade before sitting down with Moon. Some 130 U.N. member states signed a U.S.-sponsored declaration to step up action against the narcotics trade that has left 31 million people around the world requiring treatment and is causing 450,000 deaths every year from overdoses or drug-related health issues.
At their meeting, Moon delivered a personal message to Trump from Kim.
“You are the only person who can solve this problem,” Moon said to Trump, relaying Kim’s words.
Trump, for his part, said: “We are in no rush. We are in no hurry” to bring about a nuclear agreement. U.S. officials are insisting that economic sanctions remain in place against the North until it eliminates its nuclear program.
Pompeo defended Trump’s decision to seek another meeting despite the slow progress.
“We’ve been at this the other way an awfully long time and failed,” he said.
“We’re bringing the two senior leaders, the individuals who can actually make the decisions that will move this process forward,” in hopes they can make a breakthrough, he said.
Trump is set to address the U.N. General Assembly this morning and will chair a meeting of the Security Council on Wednesday on counter-proliferation.
Trump earlier this year bucked allies and removed the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, citing Iran’s malign influence in the region and support for terrorist groups like Hezbollah. The next round of tough sanctions on Iran is set to go into effect in November.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is in New York to attend U.N. meetings. U.S. officials said Trump is not seeking a meeting with the Iranian leader, but is not opposed to talking if Iran requests a session.
Rouhani, appearing on NBC on Monday, cited the threat of more U.S. sanctions in stating, “There is no such program for a meeting.”
Later Monday, the U.N. Security Council condemned the fusillade, calling it a “heinous and cowardly terrorist attack.” The council issued a statement emphasizing that perpetrators and sponsors of the assault need to be held accountable.
Also on Monday, the United States announced $185 million in new humanitarian assistance for Rohingya Muslims displaced by a military crackdown in Burma, and a State Department report found that Burma’s military targeted the Rohingya indiscriminately and often with “extreme brutality” in a coordinated campaign to drive them out of the country.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley announced the new aid, mostly for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. She called on Burma’s government “to do more to hold those who have engaged in ethnic cleansing accountable for their atrocities.”
Foreign ministers from more than a dozen countries met privately Monday to discuss the plight of the Rohingya and a recent U.N. fact finding report into atrocities in Burma’s Rakhine state that recommended prosecution of military leaders for genocide.
The State Department report released Monday is based on a survey this spring of more than 1,000 refugees among the hundreds of thousands who have fled the crackdown to neighboring Bangladesh in the past two years.
The 20-page report does not say whether the abuses constitute genocide and crimes against humanity, as U.N. investigators surmised.
Most of those interviewed by the U.S. had witnessed a killing, and half had witnessed sexual violence. Rohingya identified the military as the perpetrator in 84 percent of the killings or injuries they witnessed.
Burma, a majority Buddhist nation which is now formally under civilian rule, has denied abuses by its military.
But the U.S. report, coming on the heels of the U.N. mission, will make it increasingly difficult for the government to rebut international criticism.