Korean peace talks eyed
Trump: They have my blessing to discuss the end of the war
PALM BEACH, FLA. » President Donald Trump on Tuesday gave his blessing for North and South Korea to discuss ending their decades-long war and said that without his help, the two countries “wouldn’t be discussing anything.”
At Mar-a-Lago with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump confirmed that the two Koreas are negotiating an end to hostilities ahead of a meeting between the North’s Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in next week. The meeting will be the third inter-Korean summit since the Koreas’ 1945 division.
“They do have my blessing to discuss the end of the war,” said Trump, who welcomed Abe to his Florida resort on Tuesday.
The White House has said Abe’s visit will give the leaders an opportunity to discuss Trump’s own upcoming summit with Kim, which the president is looking to hold in the next two months. Trump said the U.S. and Japan are “very unified”
on the subject of North Korea, though privately Abe is expected to raise Japan’s concerns about the potential summit.
Trump said five locations are under consideration for the summit but offered no further details.
Trump took credit for the inter-Korean talks, saying, “Without us and without me, in particular, I guess you would have to say, they wouldn’t be discussing anything.”
The Abe summit will also serve as a test of whether the fond personal relationship the two leaders have forged on the golf course and over meetings and phone calls has chilled following Trump’s recent moves, including his decision not to exempt Japan from new steel and aluminum tariffs.
White House officials suggested that Trump was open to acceding to Abe’s hopes to obtain a waiver to the protectionist measure, which went into effect last month. Most other key U.S. allies, including Australia, Canada, the European Union, and Mexico, have been granted exemptions.
Issuing Japan the waiver to the Trump-ordered sanctions or opening negotiations on a new trade agreement with Japan are “all on the table,” Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said Tuesday. “That’s why this is such an important meeting.”
The official visit began Tuesday afternoon as an honor cordon of uniformed service-members lined the palm-fringed drive to the club. Trump greeted Abe at the red-carpeted door of the mansion as the pair posed for photos ahead of a planned one-on-one meeting. It will be followed by a small group discussion with top national security officials focused on the Kim summit. The president and first lady Melania Trump will also have dinner with Abe and his wife.
Trump welcomed the two days of meetings at his Mara-Lago club. “It’s an honor to have you in Florida with us,” Trump said.
On Wednesday, the agenda will broaden to include other issues affecting the Indo-Pacific region, including trade and energy, and Trump said he and Abe would “sneak out” to play a round of golf. Trump and Abe will also hold a news conference before the president and first lady host the Japanese delegations for dinner. Abe will return to Japan on Thursday morning.
The first time Trump hosted Abe at Mar-a-Lago shortly after the inauguration, North Korea conducted its first missile test of Trump’s administration, and the two delivered a joint statement denouncing the launch.
This time, Abe’s visit comes weeks after Trump took him — and the region — by surprise by announcing he had accepted an invitation to sit down with Kim following months of increasingly heated rhetoric over the North’s nuclear weapons program.
Abe will be seeking reassurance from Trump that security threats to Japan won’t be overlooked in the U.S.-North Korea summit, slated for May or early June. The Japanese premier has voiced fears that shortand medium-range missiles that pose a threat to Japan might not be part of the U.S. negotiations.