Trump eyeing another summit

THE Trump administration is thinking of holding a second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in New York in an effort to get the regime to pick up the pace on denuclearisation.

The meeting, which would be timed with the United Nations General Assembly convening in September, would only be held if Pyongyang shows progress in getting rid of its nuclear and ballistic weapons, Axios reported.

Administration officials say the Manhattan sit-down would work as a carrot to get Mr Kim’s government to crank up the process of denuclearisation in the coming months, the report said.

Round two would come just three months after the two leaders met in Singapore and as news reports over the weekend said North Korea had continued to work on its nuclear stockpile and was trying to hide its missiles, the New York Post reported.

While Pyongyang has stopped missile and nuclear weapons tests, “there’s no evidence that they are decreasing stockpiles or that they have stopped their production,” an official told NBC News in the US. “There is absolutely unequivocal evidence that they are trying to deceive the US.”

National Security Adviser John Bolton said he wouldn’t comment on intelligence mat- ters, but said the administration was “very well aware of North Korea’s pattern of behaviour” while negotiating with the US.

“We know exactly what the risks are of them using negotiations to drag out the length of time they have to continue their nuclear, chemical, biological weapons programs and ballistic missiles,” he said on Face the Nation in the US.

THERE’S NO EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE DECREASING STOCKPILES OR THAT THEY HAVE STOPPED THEIR PRODUCTION US OFFICIAL ON NORTH KOREA

“There’s not any starryeyed feeling among the group doing this,” he added.

But Mr Bolton also said the US had a plan for Mr Kim to denuclearise within a year, something Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will discuss when he meets with North Korean officials this week.

If Mr Kim cooperates, Mr Bolton said, the process would happen quickly.

But Mr Trump, who tweeted after his summit with Mr Kim that Americans could “sleep well tonight” because the nuclear threat from North Korea was over, said he believed Pyongyang would keep their word to disarm.