US envoy: NKorea needs long testing halt
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s U.N. ambassador said Sunday the administration isn’t changing its conditions regarding talks with North Korea amid growing tensions over the North’s nuclear and missile programs.
Nikki Haley made clear that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would first need to stop weapons testing for a “significant amount of time.” Trump had said on Saturday that he was open to talking to Kim. It appeared to be a softening of rhetoric, given that Trump had lectured Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last year that it would be a waste of time “trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” Trump’s nickname for Kim.
But Haley insisted that Trump was reiterating his past position in his comments from Camp David over the weekend.
“There is no turnaround,” she said. “What he has basically said is ‘Yes, there could be a time where we talk to North Korea,’ but a lot of things have to happen before that actually takes place. They have to stop testing. They have to be willing to talk about banning their nuclear weapons.”
Haley, speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” said, “It’s a dangerous situation.”
The first formal talks between the North and South in more than two years are set to take place in a border town Tuesday; the rivals are trying to find ways to cooperate on the Winter Olympics that begin next month in the South.
Haley said it was her understanding that the two sides were limiting their talks to the Olympics, “but you know, those two countries have to get along.”
“That’s good for the United States that they can at least start getting back into talks,” she said.