KOREANS ‘CAN’T FIGURE OUT’ TRUMP, SEEK TALKS

BERN, SWITZERLAND North Korean government officials have been quietly trying to arrange talks with Republican-linked analysts in Washington, in an apparent attempt to make sense of President Donald Trump and his confusing messages to Kim Jong Un’s regime.

“Their No. 1 concern is Trump. They can’t figure him out,” said one person with direct knowledge of North Korea’s approach to Asia experts with Republican connections.

North Korea’s mission to the UN invited Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst who is now the Heritage Foundation’s top expert on North Korea, to visit Pyongyang for meetings. Trump has close ties to Heritage, a conservative think-tank that has influenced the president. North Korean intermediaries have also approached Douglas Paal, who served as an Asia expert on the national security councils of presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.