Trump says new summit with N Korea’s Kim ‘soon’
NUKE RHETORIC US prez, who warned Pyongyang last year at UN, to target Iran UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON:
US President Donald Trump has said he expects a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to be announced “pretty soon” but the location is yet to be determined.
Trump, during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the United Nations on Monday, said: “Chairman Kim has been really very open and terrific, frankly. I think he wants to see something happen.”
Moon met Kim for a third time last week. He said he brought Trump a personal message from the North Korean leader, saying he was hoping to meet with US president again soon.
Trump and Kim met for an unprecedented summit on June 12, and Trump has been keen on a second meeting, even though some US officials and most analysts say Pyongyang has yet to show it is prepared to give up a nuclear arsenal that threatens the United States.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told a news briefing on Monday he hoped to travel back to North Korea before the end of the year to make final preparations for a second summit, which he said he was “confident” would happen. “I expect I’ll be travelling to Pyongyang before too long,” he said.
Asked if that would be before the end of the year, he replied: “Yes. Lord willing, I’ll be travelling before the end of the year.”
Pompeo said he was optimistic that Kim would deliver on his pledge to denuclearise, but this would take time.
“We’re bringing the two senior leaders, the individuals who can actually make the decisions that will move this process forward, bring them together so we can continue to make progress towards what the UN Security Council has demanded and what chairman Kim has promised he would do,” he said.
“That’s the effort. There remains work to be done. There will be some time before we get to complete denuclearisation for sure.”
TRUMP HAS NO PLANS TO MEET IRAN’S ROUHANI
Trump said on Tuesday he won’t be meeting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the imminent future, though he didn’t close the door on doing so eventually as he prepared to address the UN General Assembly on curbing nuclear proliferation.
“Despite requests, I have no plans to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Maybe someday in the future. I am sure he is an absolutely lovely man!,” Trump tweeted.
Trump will take aim at Iran over its nuclear programme and ambitions in the Middle East in his second address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
The president, who threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea in his UN speech last year, is expected to employ a forceful tone toward the Islamic Republic, even if not as bellicose as he did toward Pyongyang.
Trump has pulled the US out of a nuclear agreement with Iran while signing an agreement in principle with North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme.
His “maximum pressure’’ moniker -- which he had previously described as a series of global sanctions against North Korea -- has now been fitted to the administration’s approach to Iran.