S Korea’s Moon heads to US to salvage Trump-Kim summit
Donald Trump was to hold a high-stakes meeting with South Korea’s president at the White House on Tuesday, talks that could decide whether the US president’s much-vaunted summit with the North’s leader Kim Jong Un goes ahead.
Moon Jae-in jets into Washington on a mission to salvage a rare diplomatic opening between the US and North Korea that is in trouble almost before it begins.
Trump had agreed to meet Kim in Singapore on June 12, but the first-ever US-North Korea summit is now in serious doubt, with both sides expressing reservations.
South Korea was instrumental in convincing the two Cold War foes to sit down and talk. Trump surprised the world by summarily accepting the meeting, seeing an opportunity to “do a deal” and avoid military confrontation.
Since then, there has been a landmark series of intra-Korean meetings, two trips to Pyongyang by Mike Pompeo — first as CIA director then as America’s top diplomat — and three American citizens have been released from the North. But after several Trumpian victory laps, North Korea’s willingness to denuclearise is now in serious doubt.
Earlier this month, North Korea denounced US demands for “unilateral nuclear abandonment” and cancelled at the last minute a high-level meeting with the South in protest over joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.
Trump responded by saying the meeting may or may not take place. AFP
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