Trump sets date for North Korea summit

Historic meeting with Kim Jong Un will be June 12 in Singapore

WASHINGTON – President Trump announced Thursday that he will meet North Korea’s Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore, setting up a historic summit in hopes of getting Kim to give up his nuclear weapons programs.

“The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th,” Trump tweeted. “We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!”

Trump would be the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a leader of North Korea.

Foreign policy analysts said the summit is likely to generate good headlines, but some expressed skepticism that Kim would follow through on Trump’s major goal: North Korean disarmament.

“Can they get along? Yes,” said David Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “I think it’s highly, highly unlikely that Kim Jong Un actually gives up nuclear weapons.”

Trump said he would continue urging China and other nations to cut off economic aid to North Korea until it agrees to give up its nuclear weapons programs.

“A lot of things can happen,” Trump said Wednesday. “A lot of good things can happen. A lot of bad things can happen. I believe that … both sides want to negotiate a deal.”

In the run-up to the announcement, Trump has praised Kim, a change from the rhetoric he used when he denounced the North Korean leader as “Little Rocket Man.” Trump had threatened to drop “fire and fury” on North Ko- rea if Kim carried out his threats against the United States and its allies.

Negotiators cleared a major hurdle this week when North Korea released three American prisoners.

In welcoming the three back to the United States during a ceremony Thursday morning, Trump said Kim “really was excellent to these three incredible people.”

Trump said his “proudest achieve- ment ... will be when we denuclearize that entire (Korean) peninsula. This is what people have been waiting for for a long time. Nobody thought we could be on this track in terms of speed.”

To prepare for the high-stakes talks with Kim, Trump plans to consult with South Korean President Moon Jae-In when Moon visits the White House on May 22.

Some analysts suggested Trump was hasty in setting up a meeting with Kim and said the summit alone confers immense prestige on Kim among the North Korean people. They noted that North Korea has failed to honor previous agreements.

Historian Michael Cohen, author of American Maelstrom: The 1968 Election and the Politics of Division, said Kim might offer “a vague pledge” to denuclearize that Trump would declare a victory, but North Korea would decline to follow through.

“Can they get along? Yes. I think it’s highly, highly unlikely that Kim Jong Un actually gives up nuclear weapons.” David Rothkopf Carnegie Endowment for International Peace