Kim envoy to get meeting at White House with Trump

Letter expected from North Korean leader

“I want it to be meaningful. It doesn’t mean it gets all done at one meeting.”

President Trump

on North Korea denuclearization talks

WASHINGTON – A top North Korean official will meet with President Trump on Friday to deliver a letter from Kim Jong Un about a prospective summit that looks increasingly likely, officials said Thursday.

A week after canceling a summit scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, Trump said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s meetings with a North Korean delegation have gone “very well” and negotiations for a rescheduled meeting “are in good hands.”

“A letter is going to be delivered to me from Kim Jong Un,” Trump said. “I look forward to seeing what’s in the letter.”

Trump said one meeting with Kim — if it comes off — probably wouldn’t resolve all the disputes between the United States and North Korea.

“I want it to be meaningful,” Trump said. “It doesn’t mean it gets all done at one meeting. Maybe a second and third — and maybe we’ll have none.”

Pompeo’s meetings in New York City included Kim Yong Chul, the top aide who will deliver Kim Jong Un’s letter to the White House and speak with Trump.

Summit talks are “moving in the right direction,” Pompeo said, though he added that the U.S. will insist on complete and verifiable denuclearization of North Korea’s weapons programs — a demand Kim’s government has balked at.

Asked whether officials would formally reschedule the summit after Trump’s talk with the North Koreans on Friday, Pompeo said, “Don’t know the answer to that.” Since Trump canceled the meeting with Kim in Singapore, the parties have tried to reschedule.

One potential dispute: the definition of “denuclearization.” Trump and aides talked about the elimination of North

Korea’s weapons programs, including ballistic missiles; the North Koreans said “denuclearization” also would apply to U.S. weapons systems designed to protect the region.

The North Koreans want the U.S. and its allies to lift economic sanctions that have crippled their economy.

Kim’s government said it would never give up all its nuclear weapons, calling them essential to the regime’s security, one of the claims that led to Trump’s cancellation last week. Kim has long accused the United States of seeking his removal from power.

Gordon Chang, author of Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the

World, said Kim probably sees a meeting with Trump as a way to have economic sanctions removed, and Kim wants pictures of him shaking hands with a sitting American president, something no North Korean leader has done.

“This is legitimization,” Chang said. “This is really important for the regime.”

Giving Kim that kind of exposure means Trump had better get a good deal, Chang said, one that includes having North Korea give up all nuclear weapons and missiles. Chang said Trump needs to secure “the strictest inspection regime on Earth.”

U.S. and North Korean officials also negotiated in the Demilitarized Zone.