KOREA SUMMIT OFF AGAIN, UN AGAIN
Summit reset as Don hails ‘nice letter’ he hadn’t read
PRESIDENT TRUMP announced Friday that his historic summit with Kim Jong Un is back on schedule, ending days of uncertainty and once again putting him on track to become the first American president to meet with a North Korean leader.
The announcement came immediately after Trump held a highly unusual Oval Office meeting with vice chairman Kim Jong Chol, the former director of North Korea’s spy agency and Kim Jong Un’s right-hand man.
“We’ll be meeting on June 12 in Singapore,” Trump told reporters after escorting Kim to his motorcade. He also tamped down expectations for the meeting. We’re going to deal, and we’re going to really start a process,” Trump said
Trump abruptly canceled the Singapore sit-down last week after a North Korean official blasted Vice President Pence as “stupid” for suggesting the isolated Communist regime follow the “Libya model” and give up all its nuclear weapons.
But almost immediately after scrapping the diplomatic date, Trump began entertaining the idea of reviving it.
“I canceled it in response to a very tough statement,” Trump said Friday. “I think we’re over that, totally over that, and now we’re going to deal.”
Trump expressed unequivocal enthusiasm for the summit and said he’s confident it will have a “very positive result.” He also said Kim Jong Chol gave him a “very nice letter” from Kim Jong Un, only to concede he hadn’t yet opened it when asked about its contents. “I may be in for a big surprise folks,” Trump quipped.
The White House didn’t reveal the contents of the letter, but released a photo showing it was delivered in an unusually large envelope, which a beaming Trump posed with alongside Kim Yong Chol.
Experts were skeptical of Trump’s eagerness, voicing concern he might be rushing into a half baked summit.
“I fear the President’s reality TV experience is leading us to rush into a meeting before we’re ready for it,” Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea between 2005-2008, told the Daily News. “If he had read his own ‘Art of the Deal,’ Trump would have known you have to be careful to not appear that you want something more than the other side. I’m scared the North Koreans are seeing that we are overeager and they’re going to push a third-rate agreement.”
Vershbow argued Trump should have stuck with his initial cancellation, and only agree to a summit once a concrete deal is on the table.
“Agreeing to denuclearize as the ultimate goal is nothing new for North Korea,” Vershbow said. “They’ve said that in many declarations going back to the 1990s, but there’s never clarity on the timeline, conditions or verification.”
Despite intelligence reports to the contrary, Trump said his two-hour long conversation with Kim Yong Chol left him convinced the North Koreans are open to total denuclearization.
“I know they want to do that,” Trump said, contradicting a leaked CIA assessment claiming the opposite.
Vershbow disputed Trump’s claim.
“With 11 days to go, unless there’s a major breakthrough on these negotiations, I don’t see that happening,” Vershbow said.
U.S. sanctions on North Korea will remain in place, but Trump said they shouldn’t be considered part of the “maximum pressure” campaign he frequently touts.
Trump added he looks “forward to the day” when the sanctions can be lifted altogether.
The Friday announcement came on the heels of a series of meetings between Secretary of State Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol in Manhattan.
“They have a very good relationship with Mike Pompeo,” Trump said. “It was actually very interesting because this was literally going to be the delivery of the letter and it ended up being a twohour conversation with the second most powerful man in North Korea.”