Trump to meet with Kim Jong Un
North Korea ready to stand down on nukes, official says
WASHINGTON – President Trump will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by May for high-level talks toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, a South Korean official said outside the White
House Thursday.
The opening came through shuttle diplomacy by a South Korean delegation that arrived in Washington on Thursday. Trump heralded the development as a “major announcement” after speaking with the South Korean president.
“I told President Trump that in our meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he’s committed to denuclearization. He pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests,” South Korean
national security adviser Chung Eui Yong said after meeting with Trump at the White House.
There was no insistence that the United States and South Korea suspend joint military exercises.
Chung met with Kim this week and came to Washington to relay the message from the North Korean leader.
“I explained to President Trump that his leadership and his maximum pressure policy, along with international sol- idarity, brought us to this juncture,” he said. The Trump administration rallied the United Nations to impose evertightening sanctions against North Korea after the regime performed a battery of missile tests.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump would accept the invitation to meet Kim “at a place and time to be determined.” She added, “In the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain.”
Trump claimed a diplomatic victory Thursday, telling ABC News, “Hopefully, you will give me credit.”
Hours earlier, Trump hinted at the news in an unexpected visit to the White House briefing room, promising a “major announcement” about a “big subject.”
“You know what, it’s a Hail Mary, but why not? Crazier things have happened in world history,” said Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest. “Give peace a chance.”
Kazianis cautioned that Trump has to be careful not to give Kim any concessions. “You can’t give Kim Jong Un the photo op he wants to legitimize him,” he said. “You cannot legitimize a country that has more than 100,000 people in what are essentially Nazistyle gulag camps.”