Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Trump says Korea summit on
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would go forward on June 12 in Singapore.
The announcement came after Trump met for more than 90 minutes in the Oval Office with Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of North Korea’s Central Committee, who delivered a personal letter from Kim Jong Un. The letter was viewed as an effort to bolster ongoing negotiations and ease tensions after Trump abruptly canceled the summit last week after threats from Pyongyang escalated.
“It’s going to have to be a process, but relationships are building, and that’s a very good thing,” Trump told reporters.
“We’re meeting with the chairman on June 12, and I think it’s probably going to be a very successful — ultimately, a successful process,” he said.
Regarding the meeting with Kim Yong Chol, Trump added, “we talked about a lot. And we talked about sanctions.”
Trump said that sanctions would remain in place in the meantime but that he would not impose more while talks continue, and he backed off the term “maximum pressure” that he has used to describe his strategy.
“I don’t even want to use the term maximum pressure anymore because I don’t want to use that term because we’re getting along,” Trump said. “You see the relationship. We’re getting along. So it’s not a question of maximum pressure. It’s staying essentially the way it is.”
The president said it was possible the Singapore meeting could lead to a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War of 1950-53 but otherwise suggested it might take a longer process to lead to a consensus on the tougher questions of the North’s nuclear arsenal. He characterized it as “a getting-to-know-you meeting, plus,” and he predicted there would be “probably others.”
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we walked out and everything was settled from sitting down for a couple of hours?” Trump said. “I don’t see that happening. I see it happening over a period of time. Frankly, I said, ‘Take your time.’”
Trump spoke from the South Lawn of the White House after seeing Kim Yong Chol off. Much had been made of the letter his visitor carried from the North Korean leader.
Trump initially told reporters it was “a very nice letter” and “a very interesting letter,” but by the end of a conversation with reporters, he said he had not actually read it. “I may be in for a big surprise, folks,” he said.
Later Friday, deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley confirmed that Trump had read the letter, but he did not reveal its contents.
EX-SPY CHIEF ARRIVES
Kim Yong Chol, a former spy chief who is leading the North Korea side in pre-summit talks, entered the White House grounds in a black SUV shortly after 1 p.m. He was greeted by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Andrew Kim, a CIA official in charge of the agency’s Korea Mission Center.
They were spotted by reporters walking along the Colonnade toward the West Wing, where the group escorted Kim into the Oval Office. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who met with Kim Yong Chol in New York on Thursday, was also visible in the meeting through a window in images captured by television cameras.
Kim Yong Chol became the first North Korea official in 18 years to visit the White House since President Bill Clinton met in the Oval Office with Jo Myong Rok, a top military official and attache to Kim Jong Il, the current leader’s father. Jo presented Clinton with a letter from the North Korean leader inviting him for a meeting in Pyongyang, an invitation Clinton ultimately turned down.
While Jo wore a military uniform, Kim Yong Chol was dressed in a dark business suit.
Kim’s visit represented an extraordinary turn of events. He had been personally sanctioned by the United States over his role in the North’s nuclear weapons program and is thought to have masterminded an attack that sank a South Korean naval vessel in 2010, killing 46 sailors. Kim needed a special waiver from the State Department to travel to New York and to Washington.
“Very good meetings with North Korea,” Trump wrote Thursday on Twitter.
Trump had called off the summit last week, citing “open hostility” from North Korea after a top aide to Kim Jong Un had called Vice President Mike Pence a “political dummy” and threatened a nuclear showdown. But another aide later sent a more conciliatory note to Trump, who instructed his own staff to continue lower-level talks. A pair of U.S. delegations have held talks this week with their North Korean counterparts at the Korean Demilitarized Zone and in Singapore.
U. S. officials have expressed optimism that the two sides are making progress toward resolving differences over the summit’s agenda and logistical planning.
But questions remain about what a deal on the North’s nuclear weapons would look like. Trump said Friday that he believed Kim Jong Un would agree to denuclearization, but the two countries have offered differing visions of what that entails. Despite Kim’s apparent eagerness for a summit with Trump, there are many doubts that he would fully relinquish his nuclear arsenal, which he may see as his guarantee of survival.
The Trump administration has pressed for the North to rapidly take steps to turn over its nuclear program, while Pyongyang has said it expects a slower, step-by-step process in which the North receives reciprocal benefits, including economic incentives.
Former U.S. officials who have negotiated with North Korea have cautioned that the Kim family regime has violated past deals aimed at curbing the nation’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
But Trump has expressed optimism that his unorthodox approach could lead to a breakthrough. He was scheduled to depart the White House on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend at Camp David, where is set to participate in North Korea briefings, aides said.
NORTH-SOUTH TALKS
Separately, North and South Korea agreed Friday to hold military and Red Cross talks later this month on reducing tensions and resuming reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
The rivals also agreed at a meeting of senior officials at the border village of Panmunjom to establish a liaison office at the North Korean border town of Kaesong and hold sports talks on fielding combined teams for some sports at the Asian Games in August, as they continue to take steps toward reconciliation.
South Korea says building trust with North Korea is crucial during a U.S.-led diplomatic push to persuade the North to give up its nuclear weapons.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said the Koreas agreed to set up the liaison office at a factory park in Kaesong that had been jointly operated by the countries until the South shut it down in February 2016 after a North Korean nuclear test. The Koreas agreed to hold the military talks at Panmunjom on June 14 and the Red Cross talks on June 22 at the North’s Diamond Mountain resort.
The talks between sports officials were set for June 18 at Panmunjom, the ministry said.
“If we continue to engage with each other like we did today, there will be no problem that can’t be solved between the South and North,” South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said after the meeting.
Panmunjom also has been the site of pre-summit negotiations between American and North Korean officials. The American delegation is led by Sung Kim, the U.S. ambassador to Manila, who said Friday that a summit between Washington and Pyongyang would provide an opportunity to “lead our two countries into new era of security, prosperity and peace.”
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who met with Kim Jong Un twice in the past two months, has said progress in inter-Korean reconciliation will be a crucial part of international efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff with North Korea because the North won’t give up its nuclear program unless it feels its security is assured.
Ri Son Gwon, chairman of the North Korean agency that deals with inter-Korean affairs, told Cho at the start of the meeting that the rivals should work on building “trust and consideration for each other” to carry out the agreements forged at the recent inter-Korean summits.
Talking to South Korean reporters ahead of Friday’s meeting, Ri seemed irritated when asked whether North Korea sees its grievances as resolved, saying reporters must ask questions that “meet the demand of changing times.” When asked about the potential Trump-Kim meeting, Ri replied: “Go fly to Singapore to ask that question. This is Panmunjom.”