Nation & World Glance
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Kim Jong Un wants a historic, highstakes meeting as soon as possible and suggested the North Korean dictator has been “very open” and “very honorable,” a sharply different assessment of a leader he once denounced as “Little Rocket Man.”
The United States and North Korea have been negotiating a summit between Trump and Kim to be held in May or June to broker a deal on Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Trump, who has struck a decidedly optimistic tone on the situation in recent days, said Tuesday that the United States and North Korea were having “good discussions.”
“We have been told directly that they would like to have the meeting as soon as possible. We think that’s a great thing for the world,” Trump said at the White House alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. “Kim Jong Un, he really has been very open and I think very honorable from everything we’re seeing.”
Trump cautioned that North Korea had not followed through on previous promises, but credited tough steps from his administration — including sanctions and organizing pressure from international allies — for having forced Pyongyang to hold talks. And he again suggested that he would “leave the table” if the negotiations were not productive or if North Korea was not operating in good faith.
A unified Korea? Leaders bring contrasting visions
SEOUL, South Korea — Unification is an idea that moves most Koreans, North and South, on an emotional level.
For some, especially young people in the South, it may not be a burning issue. Details like the costs, the risks and what specifically both sides stand to gain are rarely given much thought by anyone who isn’t an academic, politician or activist.
But when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in meet on Friday, the prospect of unification, even if only in the abstract, will loom large around them.
Can Kim’s nucleararmed North and the K-pop capitalism of Moon’s South ever merge into One Korea? Both leaders come to the table with distinct visions of what that would look like. And they are very different.
Canada van victims include grandmother, avid volunteer
TORONTO — An 80-yearold grandmother who loved Toronto sports teams nearly as much as her own family and a “brilliant” young woman who volunteered to build houses in the Dominican Republic were among the 10 people killed when a van plowed down a Toronto sidewalk.
Other victims in Monday’s attack included people from Jordan and South Korea, as well as a local college student. Though the names of most of the victims weren’t immediately released, details began emerging about several of them as their families began mourning and memorials grew larger.
Toronto City Councilor Cesar Palacio identified one of the victims as 30-year-old Anne Marie D’Amico, who worked at an investment management firm near the attack.