TRUMP CASTS DOUBTON MEET WITH KIM
But South Korea says ‘no need to doubt’ as North Korea prepares for destruction of nuclear testing facility
WASHINGTON— US President Donald Trump on Tuesday cast doubt that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jongun would take place as planned in Singapore on June 12.
“There’s a very substantial chance…it won’t work out. And that’s OK,” Trump after meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the White House.
“[But] that doesn’t mean it won’t work out over a period of time. But it may not work out for June 12. But there is a good chance that we’ll have the meeting,” Trump added.
Trump said whether the meeting would be held as scheduled would be determined “pretty soon.”
“North Korea has a chance to be a great country and I think they should seize the opportunity,” he said of what most of the world believed to be the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency.
Pushing the agenda
However, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later told reporters that the Trump administration was still planning for a June 12 summit, while analysts surmised the remark was meant to coax North Korea.
“Trump doesn’t want to look like he wants this summit more than Kim does,” said Bonnie Glaser, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“It’s a smart move to say that he is willing to postpone,” she said.
“But to be credible, the president really has to be willing to walk away and I’m not sure he is,” she added.
99% chance
Moon, on the other hand, told Trump there was no need to doubt North Korea’s seriousness about the summit, a South Korean government spokesperson told reporters.
Moon’s national security adviser Chung Eui-yong told reporters en route to Washington that he believed there was a “99.9-percent chance” the summit would take place as scheduled.
Moon said he knew of the doubts in the United States about the summit, “but I don’t think there will be positive developments in history if we just assume that, because it all failed in the past, it will fail again.”
Punggye-ri site demolition
Before seeing Trump, Moon urged Pompeo and National Se- curity Adviser John Bolton to hasten preparations for the summit as North Korea invited foreign journalists to witness the slated destruction of the reclusive regime’s nuclear test site.
The demolition of the Punggye-ri nuclear facility in the country’s northeast is due to take place sometime between Wednesday and Friday, depending on the weather.
Punggye-ri has been the site of all six of North Korea’s nuclear tests, the latest and by far the most powerful in September last year, which Pyongyang said was an H-bomb.
North Korea has portrayed the destruction on the test site as a goodwill gesture ahead of the summit.—