Korean leaders meet like ‘friends’ to salvage summit
U.S. delegation said to be on hand to prepare for Singapore negotiations
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Sunday that Kim Jong Un expressed a firm commitment to fully denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and that the North Korean leader still wants to meet with President Donald Trump.
Toward that end, an American delegation met with North Korean officials in the Demilitarized Zone on Sunday as planning seemed to move ahead for the on-off-perhaps-on-again summit between Kim and Trump.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tapped veteran American diplomat Sung Kim to handle pre-summit negotiations. On a separate but complementary track is the CIA team Pompeo set up last year when he headed the spy agency. And on a third track is a White House logistical group sent to Singapore this weekend to prepare in case the summit takes place. It was led by Joe Hagin, White House deputy chief of staff for operations.
Sung Kim, the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, also served as ambassador to South Korea and was part of the U.S. negotiating team that last held substantive denuclearization talks with North Korea during the George W. Bush administration in 2005.
Moon described a surprise meeting Saturday with Kim Jong Un in the Panmunjom truce village, saying Kim had committed to sitting down with Trump and to a “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
The developments, after last week’s whirlwind of uncertainty, appeared to flesh out Trump’s assertion that the June12 summit in Singapore that he canceled Thursday could take place as first scheduled. Trump told reporters Saturday that there was “a lot of goodwill,” that the original plan was still being considered and that “that hasn’t changed.”
“We continue to prepare for a meeting,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in Washington as she confirmed that an American delegation was “in ongoing talks with North Korean officials” in Panmunjom.
Moon briefed reporters on his surprise Saturday meeting with Kim, which took place on the North Korean side of the Panmunjom border village inside the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula.