The summit’s back on: Trump welcomes NKorean to White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S.-North Korea summit is back on track, President Donald Trump announced Friday, ending weeks of uncertainty about his historic meeting with Kim Jong Un to discuss ending the North Korean leader’s nuclear program.
Trump made the announcement, just a week after he had said he was canceling the Singapore summit, following a more than hour-long meeting with a top North Korean official who delivered a letter from the North Korean leader. The official, Kim Yong Chol, posed for photos with Trump outside the Oval Office, and they talked amiably at Kim’s car before he was driven away.
“We’re going to deal,” Trump told reporters after Kim left. He also said it was likely that more than one meeting would be necessary to bring about his goal of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula but “I think you’re going to have a very positive result in the end. We will see what we will see.”
In the latest sign of hostility cooling down but hopes kept in check, Trump said he’s unilaterally put a hold on new sanctions against the North “until the talks break down.”
“I don’t even want to use the term ‘maximum pressure’ anymore,” Trump added, referencing his preferred term for the punishing U.S. economic sanctions against North Korea.
Trump told reporters he hadn’t yet read the letter from Kim and added with a smile, “I may be in for a big surprise, folks.” But minutes earlier he had described the note as “a very interesting letter,” and teased journalists about revealing its contents.
Later Friday, deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley confirmed that Trump had read the letter, but he did not reveal the contents.
Plans for the highstakes sit-down in Singapore had been cast into doubt. Trump suddenly withdrew from the meeting last week, only to announce a day later that it could still get back on track. White House officials cast the roller-coaster public statements as reflective of the hard-nosed negotiation by the two nations.
Three teams of officials in the U.S., Singapore, and the Korean demilitarized zone have been meeting this week on preparations for the summit.
After North Korean officials delivered a series of bellicose statements last month, Trump announced he was withdrawing from the summit with a strongly worded letter. He cited “tremendous anger and open hostility” by Pyongyang but also urged Kim Jong Un to call him. By the next day, he was signaling the event could be back on after a conciliatory response from North Korea.
Trump has refused to publicly acknowledge whether he’s spoken directly with Kim Jong Un ahead of the talks.