President again changes his tone on North Korea
Trump cheered by latest news, may revive summit
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump greeted North Korea’s most recent statements with optimism Friday, saying they could lead to a restart of the peace talks he abandoned the day before – perhaps as originally scheduled on June 12.
“We’ll see what happens. We are talking to them now,” Trump said. “They very much want to do it. We’d like to do it.”
Trump suggested that the on-again, off-again talks are just part of the game of international diplomacy.
“Everybody plays games,” he told reporters on the south lawn of the White House. “You know that better than anybody.”
Trump was responding to a statement from Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s vice foreign minister, that the regime is still willing to sit down with Trump “at any time, at any format.”
“Very good news to receive the warm and productive statement from North Korea,” Trump said on Twitter. “We will soon see where it will lead, hopefully to long and enduring prosperity and peace. Only time (and talent) will tell!”
As Trump pulled out of talks planned for Singapore, the White House blamed North Korea’s ramped-up nuclear rhetoric and unwillingness to meet for presummit planning.
But the North Koreans said they were ready to meet and were surprised by Trump’s decision to cancel.
“We have inwardly highly appreciated President Trump for having made the bold decision, which any other U.S. presidents dared not, and made efforts for such a crucial event as the summit,” the North Korean statement said. “His sudden and unilateral announcement to cancel the summit is something unexpected to us and we can not but feel great regret for it.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, an ally of Kim Jong Un, said the North Korean leader had done “everything that he had promised in advance, even blowing up the tunnels and shafts” of his nuclear site, the Associated Press reported. Putin said of Trump’s cancellation announcement, “we took this news with regret.”
Heather Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman, told reporters Friday that the administration expected “twists and turns” in the runup to the summit.
“We never expected it to be easy,” she said.
Nauert said the administration is wary of heading into a meeting without knowing that something concrete will come out of it. She said she wasn’t aware of whether the Trump administration is currently in direct contact with Kim’s government.
“We weren’t getting the right signals previously,” she said, “so hopefully we will in the future.”
Trump also injected domestic politics into the North Korea issue Friday, accusing Democrats of not supporting the peace talks.
“Democrats are so obviously rooting against us in our negotiations with North Korea,” he said, also accusing Democrats of supporting “MS-13 thugs,” and wanting to raise taxes. “Dems have lost touch!”