Trump dangles U.S. visit in front of Kim

Hints at investment if ‘summit goes well’

WASHINGTON — Heading into his North Korea summit with characteristic bravado, President Donald Trump said Thursday that “attitude” is more important than preparation as he looks to negotiate an accord with Kim Jong Un to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Preparing to depart Washington for next week’s meeting, Mr. Trump dangled before Mr. Kim visions of normalized relations with the United States, economic investment and even a White House visit “if the summit goes well.”

“I think he would look at it very favorably, so I think that could happen,” Mr. Trump said, confirming Thursday rumors that an invitation to the White House could be in the offing for Mr. Kim, the third generation of his family to hold absolute rule in the isolated communist country sometimes called the Hermit Kingdom.

Skeptics, including many Republicans, have worried that Mr. Trump is giving up leverage simply by meeting with Mr. Kim, since doing so implies that

the North Korean leader holds equal status with the U.S. leader.

An invitation to the White House, unthinkable only months ago, would go much further in conferring status as a global leader on a man who until this year had not left his own borders since taking office in 2011.

Characterizing the upcoming talks with the thirdgeneration autocrat as a “friendly negotiation,” Mr. Trump said, “I really believe that Kim Jong Un wants to do something.”

Mr. Trump’s comments came as he looked to reassure allies that he won’t give away the store in pursuit of a legacy-defining deal with Mr. Kim, who has long sought to cast off his pariah status on the international stage. The North has faced crippling diplomatic and economic sanctions as it has advanced development of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

“I don’t think I have to prepare very much,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s about attitude. It’s about willingness to get things done.”

Declaring the summit to be “much more than a photo-op,” he predicted “a terrific success or a modified success” when he meets with Mr. Kim next Tuesday in Singapore. He said the talks would start a process to bring about a resolution to the nuclear issue.

“I think it’s not a onemeeting deal,” he said. Asked how many days he’s willing to stay to talk with Mr. Kim, Mr. Trump said, “One, two three, depending on what happens.”

Still he predicted he’ll know very quickly whether Mr. Kim is serious about dealing with U.S. demands.

“They have to de-nuke,” Mr. Trump said. “If they don’t denuclearize, that will not be acceptable. And we cannot take sanctions off.”

Mr. Trump, who coined the term “maximum pressure” to describe U.S. sanctions against the North, said they would be an indicator for the success or failure of the talks.

“We don’t use the term anymore because we’re going into a friendly negotiation,” Mr. Trump said. “Perhaps after that negotiation, I will be using it again. You’ll know how well we do in the negotiation. If you hear me saying, ‘We’re going to use maximum pressure,’ you’ll know the negotiation did not do well, frankly.”

At another point, he said it was “absolutely” possible he and Mr. Kim could sign a declaration to end the Korean War. The 1950-53 conflict ended with an armistice but not a formal peace treaty.

Mr. Trump spent Thursday morning firing off a dozen unrelated tweets — on the Russia investigation and other subjects — before meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to talk about summit preparations and strategy.

“I think I’ve been prepared for this summit for a long time, as has the other side,” he said. “II think they’ve been preparing for a long time also. So this isn’t a question of preparation, it’s a question of whether or not people want it to happen.”

Administration officials indicated that Mr. Trump actually was putting in preparation time. National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis noted the president met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton on Thursday afternoon “to continue their strategic discussions” ahead of the summit.

Mr. Pompeo said he was confident the president would be fully prepared and dismissed reports of division inside Mr. Trump’s foreign policy team over the decision to embrace the meeting with Mr. Kim.

In his previous role as CIA director, Mr. Pompeo told reporters Thursday, “there were few days that I left the Oval Office, after having briefed the president, that we didn’t talk about North Korea.”

Mr. Pompeo said Mr. Kim had “personally” given him assurances that he was willing to pursue denuclearization and said U.S. and North Korean negotiating teams had made unspecified progress toward bridging the gap over defining that term as part of a potential agreement. He would not say whether Mr. Trump would insist that the North put an end to its chemical, biological and ballistic missile programs.

Mr. Abe, for his part, pushed Mr. Trump to raise with Mr. Kim the issue of Japanese abductees held in North Korea. The Japanese leader wanted to make sure that Mr. Trump’s efforts to negotiate an agreement don’t harm Japan’s interests. Mr. Trump said Mr. Abe talked about the abductees “long and hard and passionately, and I will follow his wishes and we will be discussing that with North Korea absolutely.”

U.S. allies in the region have expressed concern that Mr. Trump’s push to denuclearize Korea could ignore the North’s sophisticated ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs.