United States President Donald Trump will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by May, opening a diplomatic path to a potential solution to the nuclear stalemate in the Korean peninsula. This will be the first time a sitting American President will be meeting a North Korean leader.
Mr. Kim "conveyed that he wants to meet with President as quickly as possible,"" a senior administration official said, soon after South Korean National Security Advisor Chung Eui-Yong briefed Mr. Trump and senior U.S officials on his talks with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang on Monday. The invitation for talks was conveyed orally by Mr. Kim to Mr. Chung, who then conveyed it orally to the President on Thursday, the U.S official said.
The President "greatly appreciates the nice words of the South Korean delegation and President Moon [of South Korea]. He will accept the invitation to meet with Kim Jong-un at a place and time to be determined. We look forward to the denuclearization of North Korea. In the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. "Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned!," Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. Mr. Trump had said during the 2016 campaign that he might be able to make a deal with the North Korean leader in a face-to-face meeting.
'Kim committed to denuclearization'
The South Korean envoy told Mr. Trump that Mr. Kim was committed to denuclearization of the peninsula, and no longer objected to joint military exercises by South Korea and the U.S. North Korea will also refrain from further nuclear and missile testing, Mr. Chung told reporters at White House. He said the President agreed to meet Mr. Kim in May.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim have hurled insults at each other publicly in recent months, even as North Korea continued to upgrade its nuclear capabilities that many experts now believe could even threaten mainland America. In his U.N speech in September 2017, Mr. Trump threatened to “totally destroy" North Korea, but American military strategists have concluded that any military option could be catastrophic for allies South Korea and Japan and American troops present there.
Soon after this meeting with South Korean intermediaries, Mr. Trump spoke to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan. The leaders affirmed their "strong intention to continue close trilateral coordination with South Korea to maintain pressure and enforce international sanctions until such point that North Korea takes tangible steps toward complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization," the White House said in a statement.
To WH, it is success of Trump policy
The White House portrayed the breakthrough as a success of Mr. Trump's policy of maximum pressure on North Korea, declaring that there will be no let up in pressure and denuclearisaiton of the peninsula remained the objective of the U.S. Mr. Trump had called Mr. Kim “Little Rocket Man” and Mr. Kim had called the American President a "dotard" and a "lunatic" in the recent past. American war preparations have also progressed simultaneously, bringing to the forefront the huge risks associated with a preemptive strike on North Korea. A significant section of American strategic thinkers have already concluded that America must learn to live with a nuclear North Korea.
The administration official quoted earlier said Mr. Trump’s approach has been different from his predecessors who authorized several rounds of talks with the North. "If we look at the history of these negotiations that took place under prior administrations, they have often led to the relinquishing of pressure. They have often led to concessions being made to North Korea in return for talks. President Trump has been very clear from the beginning that he is not prepared to reward North Korea in exchange for talks,” said the official.
The official said the terms of a settlement is not on the agenda right now, but as and when that stage is reached, inspection and verification of North Korea’s nuclear programme would be part of it. "Obviously, verification goes hand in hand with any kind of acceptable deal for the permanent denuclearization of North Korea, and we will settle for nothing less than that outcome. It's the outcome that the entire world expects, as exemplified under all those U.N. Security Council resolutions -- the four of them that have passed in the time that President Trump has been in office and under his leadership," said the official.
North Korea’s willingness to ignore the U.S- South Korean joint military exercises is a climbdown for Pyongyang, and encouraging for Washington. China has been proposing 'freeze for freeze,' i.e discontinuation of tests by the North and exercises by the South and the U.S, as an initial step towards a diplomatic breakthrough. Pyongyang's apparent willingness to act outside of this framework might allow Mr. Trump to work independently of China on the crisis. Joint exercises are now due, thought dates have not been announced.
Explaining the rationale of a summit meeting in such complicated circumstance and at such high risks, the official said: "President Trump made his reputation on making deals. Kim Jong-un is the one person who is able to make decisions under their authoritarian -- uniquely authoritarian -- or totalitarian system. And so it made sense to accept an invitation to meet with the one person who can actually make decisions instead of repeating the, sort of, long slog of the past."
