TRUMP OPEN TO PHASED NOKOR DISARMAMENT
NEW YORK— President Donald Trump hinted on Thursday that the United States will not insist on North Korea’s immediate nuclear disarmament, but maintained it should be done “at some point.”
“I’d like to see it done in one meeting,” Trump told Reuters on Air Force One on the way to Texas. “But often times that’s not the way deals work.”
“There’s a very good chance that it won’t be done in one meeting or two meetings or three meetings. But it’ll get done at some point,” he said ahead of an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jongun on June 12 in Singapore.
Pivotal moment
Trump made the remark as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean official Kim Yong-chol concluded on Thursday two days of meetings ahead of the summit.
“Our two countries face a pivotal moment in our relationship in which it [would] be nothing short of tragic to let this opportunity go to waste,” Pompeo said after the meetings.
Pompeo said Kim Yongchol, the most senior official from Pyongyang to visit the United States in 18 years, is expected to deliver a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jongun on Friday.
“This is a difficult, difficult challenge. Make no mistake about it. There remains a great deal of work to do,” Pompeo said, citing ongoing talks in Singapore and in the demilitarized zone on the Korean border.
Peace talks
Meantime, North and South Korea on Friday resumed seniorlevel peace talks at the inter-Korean border village of Pan- munjom, where anAmerican delegation, led by US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, also metwithNorth Koreans.
During their morning session, officials of both countries raised the possibility of setting up a liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
They also discussed a joint commemoration of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000.
South Korea also proposed military talks on reducing tensions across their heavily armed border and Red Cross talks to resume reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, the reunification ministry said.