Should Trump still meet Kim Jong-un?
Well, keep digging your doomsday shelters, President Trump’s North Korea summit is off. The president announced the decision in a letter to North Korea’s Kim Jongun. He cited “tremendous anger and open hostility” in recent statements coming out of the North as his reason for cancelling the meeting.
But he also left open the possibility of the summit still going forward.
“If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write,” Trump wrote. The North Koreans also still seems prepared to meet.
According to The New York Times, Kim Kye-gwan, a vice foreign minister of North Korea, said in a statement that his country remained “willing to sit down with the United States any time, in any format, to resolve the problems.” Later, Trump reiterated his willingness to meet, telling reporters that the summit could still be held on June 12.
But should Trump still even bother meeting Kim Jongun? That’s our Question of the Week for readers.
Trump’s decision is believed to be the result of a statement by Choe Son Hui, another North Korean viceforeign minister, who took exception to Vice President Mike Pence on Fox News, suggesting the United States wanted to see the “Libya model” for North Korea. Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi dismantled his nuclear weapons program and was later murdered during a Westernbacked revolution.
“Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States,” Choe wrote.
But if total denuclearization isn’t on the table, what’s the point? Or is Trump trying a bargaining tactic? After all, he offered some fiery rhetoric of his own in that statement. “You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used,” he wrote. And the North Koreans still want to meet. Maybe it’s working?
Email your thoughts to Letters@Trentonian.com. Please include your full name and city or community of residence.
— Southern California News
Group, Digital First Media
But if total denuclearization isn’t on the table, what’s the point? Or is Trump trying a bargaining tactic? After all, he offered some fiery rhetoric of his own in that statement.