USA TODAY International Edition
One thing the summit with N. Korea won’t be: Predictable
Trump, Kim not likely to be confined by script
WASHINGTON – A president who prides himself on being unpredictable is scrambling his way toward one of the hardest-to-figure events in diplomatic history.
Less than a week before President Trump is scheduled to sit down with Kim Jong Un, it’s difficult to tell what to expect from the first meeting between the president of the United States and the leader of North Korea.
“It looks like it’s coming along fine,” Trump said this week. “We’ll see what happens — but very important . ... It will be a very important couple of days.”
The stakes could not be higher: the fate of nuclear weapons that North Korea threatened to use against the United States and that the United States pledged to destroy if necessary.
Among the many unknowns surrounding the summit:
Definition of denuclearization
Trump and aides want the “complete, verifiable and irreversible” elimination of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs, but they haven’t rolled out a plan by which that complex task might be accomplished.
Kim and the North Koreans have not disclosed their definition of denuclearization. They have called on the United States to pull back its nuclear defense “umbrella” over the region and remove troops from South Korea, developments that would be of concern to American allies in Asia.
North Korea’s demands
North Korea wants the United States and other countries to end or reduce economic sanctions that have crippled its economy.
Trump, who has spent the better part of a year urging countries to cut off economic assistance to North Korea, raised questions about his commitment to “maximum pressure” moving forward.
“It’s going to remain what it is now,” Trump said, but “I don’t even want to use the term ‘maximum pressure’ anymore … because we’re getting along.”
Number of meetings
Trump raised the possibility of multiple meetings with Kim by referring to “a very interesting couple of days.” The early schedule leaves plenty of room for instant reunions.
The White House confirmed that the opening Trump-Kim meeting is set for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Singapore time — 9 p.m. ET Monday in the USA. The session will be at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island, just off the Singapore mainland.
The president is scheduled to arrive in Singapore on Sunday night, local time, leaving all day Monday for possible events. The schedule is blank after the meeting Tuesday morning, leaving open the possibility of more sessions in the afternoon or even on Wednesday.
On the other hand, Trump said he would walk out of the meeting with Kim if he didn’t see progress on the nuclear question.
It’s unusual to put together a meeting like this on the fly, some analysts said. Most high-profile summits are tightly scripted well in advance.
“In this case, no one really knows if (Trump is) going to follow the script into the meeting,” said Thomas Wright, a senior fellow with the Washington-based Brookings Institution. “So much is contingent on how he feels and the chemistry in the room.”
During his presidential campaign, Trump invoked the virtues of unpredictability, even in foreign policy.
“I don’t want people to know exactly what I’m doing — or thinking,” Trump said in a campaign book called Crippled America. “I like being unpredictable. It keeps them off balance.”