Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

US, South Korea Work to Keep North Korea Summit on Track

The United States and South Korea are laboring to keep the U.S. summit with North Korea on track even after President Donald Trump abruptly said "there's a very substantial chance" it won't go off as planned.

By ZEKE MILLER and CATHERINE LUCEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and South Korea are laboring to keep the U.S. summit with North Korea on track even after President Donald Trump abruptly said "there's a very substantial chance" it won't go off as planned.

"The fate and the future of the Korean Peninsula hinge" on the meeting, South Korea's president told Trump in an Oval Office meeting Tuesday.

The summit, scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, would offer a historic chance for peace. But there also is the risk of a diplomatic failure that would allow the North to revive and advance its nuclear weapons program.

U.S. officials say preparations are still underway. "We're driving on," said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

Trump's newfound hesitation appeared to reflect recent setbacks in efforts to bring about reconciliation between the two Koreas, as well as concern whether the self-proclaimed deal-maker can deliver a nuclear accord with the North's Kim Jong Un.

Trump said Kim had not met unspecified "conditions" for the summit. But Trump also said he believed Kim was "serious" about negotiations, and South Korean leader Moon Jae-in expressed "every confidence" in Trump's ability to hold the summit and bring about peace.

"I have no doubt that you will be able to ... accomplish a historic feat that no one had been able to achieve in the decades past," Moon said.

Trump said he didn't want to "totally commit" himself on whether North Korea should denuclearize all at once or in phases. "It would certainly be better if it were all in one," Trump said, before adding, "You do have some physical reasons that it may not be able to do exactly that."

Trump suggested the summit could be delayed rather than canceled: "It may not work out for June 12, but there is a good chance that we'll have the meeting."

He did not detail the conditions he had laid out for Kim but said if they aren't met, "we won't have the meeting." His spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said Trump was referring to a commitment to seriously discuss denuclearization.

Skepticism about the North's intentions have mounted in recent weeks after Kim's government pulled out of planned peace talks with the South last week, objecting to long-scheduled joint military exercises between U.S. and South Korean forces. The North also threatened to abandon the planned Trump-Kim meeting over U.S. insistence on rapidly denuclearizing the peninsula, issuing a harshly worded statement that the White House dismissed as a negotiating ploy.

Trump expressed suspicion that the North's recent aggressive barbs were influenced by Kim's unannounced trip to China two weeks ago — his second in as many months. Trump said he'd noticed "a little change" in Kim's attitude after the trip.

"I don't like that," he said.

The president said he hoped Chinese President Xi Jinping was actually committed to the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, calling him a "world-class poker player." Trump said he was displeased by China's softening of border enforcement measures against North Korea.

Trump encouraged Kim to focus on the opportunities offered by the meeting and to make a deal to abandon his nuclear program, pledging not only to guarantee Kim's personal security but also predicting an economic revitalization for the North.

"I will guarantee his safety, yes," Trump said, noting that promise was conditioned on an agreement to complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization. Trump said if such an agreement is reached, China, Japan and South Korea would invest large sums to "make North Korea great."

____

Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.

Categories / International

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...