Planning starts for Trump-Kim talk
PRESIDENT’S AIDES DOUBTFUL MEETING WILL EVER HAPPEN
>> WASHINGTON: A day after US President Donald Trump accepted an invitation to meet Kim Jong-un of North Korea, the White House began planning a high-level diplomatic encounter so risky and seemingly far-fetched that some of Mr Trump’s aides believe it will never happen.
The administration is already deliberating over the logistics and location of the meeting, with a senior State Department diplomat noting that the most obvious venue is the Peace House, a conference building in the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea.
But several officials on Friday said the United States needed to establish direct contact with North Korea to verify the message from Mr Kim that was conveyed by South Korean envoys to Mr Trump on Thursday. They warned that Mr Kim could change his mind or break the promises he had made about halting nuclear and missile tests during talks.
“The United States has made zero concessions, but North Korea has made some promises,” said the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “This meeting won’t take place without concrete actions that match the promises that have been made by North Korea.”
The White House later clarified that Ms Sanders was not adding preconditions to the meeting but merely emphasising the consequences if Mr Kim conducted tests or interfered with joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea scheduled to begin at the end of March.
On Friday night, Mr Trump reiterated on Twitter that “the deal with North Korea is very much in the making” and that it would be, “if completed, a very good one for the world”.
“Time and place to be determined,” he said.
The White House’s muddled message highlighted the confusion sowed by Mr Trump’s on-the-spot decision to meet Mr Kim.
Having built its North Korea policy on sanctions and threats of military action, the administration must now learn the language of engagement.
It also served as a reminder of how many hurdles lie ahead before Mr Trump’s spontaneous decision on Thursday afternoon leads to a meticulously staged meeting between the US president and the dictator who rules the world’s most reclusive country.
“North Korean offers typically come with caveats and asterisks that need to be examined,” said Daniel R Russel, a former Asia adviser to previous president Barack Obama. “We all hope that the multiyear pressure campaign has had an effect, but we shouldn’t prematurely celebrate.”
At the State Department, where some diplomats quietly applauded Mr Trump’s gamble, there was a fear that more hawkish aides in the White House might throw up further hurdles to the meeting. The White House, they said, has invested more in sanctions and military options than in diplomacy. Officials there have in the past expressed frustration about what they viewed as the Pentagon’s reluctance to provide options for a military strike on the North.
With all the potential traps and internal misgivings, some officials said they believed the chances of a meeting between the two leaders actually happening were less than 50%.
Mr Trump’s decision stunned allies and his own advisers, not least Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was caught unaware while travelling in Africa when the president accepted Mr Kim’s invitation.
Mr Tillerson’s lack of involvement in the announcement underscored how marginalised the State Department has become in North Korean policy. The department’s chief negotiator on North Korea, Joseph Yun, resigned last week.
Other State Department officials insisted that Mr Tillerson had not been singled out; Mr Trump blindsided all his advisers. And the secretary, speaking to reporters in Djibouti, argued that Mr Trump’s decision was not the bolt from the blue that it seemed.
“This is something that he’s had on his mind for quite some time, so it was not a surprise in any way,” Mr Tillerson said. “He’s expressed it openly before about his willingness to meet with Kim Jong-un.”
Ms Sanders said the president was in a “great mood” after two momentous days in which he had announced sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum — fulfilling a cherished campaign promise — and had scrambled the equation on his most pressing foreign policy challenge.
Privately, however, Mr Trump sounded muted rather than buoyant, according to a person familiar with a round of calls he made on Thursday evening to solicit feedback about his surprise move.
While the president told people he liked the concept of a once-in-a-lifetime breakthrough, the person said, he struck a less boisterous note than he usually does publicly when he places a bet on himself.
But in the past 24 hours, the president has told confidantes that he feels vindicated by his decision to accept the invitation for a meeting, suggesting his approach has led to a potential new path.
Some advisers in the room with Mr Trump and the South Korean envoys — including Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and the national security adviser, Lt Gen HR McMaster — expressed concerns about a meeting, according to a senior official.