AFP, United States :
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he hoped his improbable summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un would go ahead-but warned he was not afraid to walk away if the meeting appears unlikely to be “fruitful.”
The odds of the Trump-Kim talks taking place were boosted by the shock news of secret Easter weekend talks between CIA chief Mike Pompeo and the reclusive thirty-something strongman-the most significant US-North Korea contacts in almost two decades.
On Wednesday, Trump confirmed the clandestine meeting had happened, heaping praise on Pompeo-the man he has already tapped to be the next secretary of state-and saying his covert mission to the North Korean capital had been a success.
“He just left North Korea. Had a great meeting with Kim Jong Un, and got along with him really well, really great,” Trump said. “He’s very smart but he gets along with people.”
Trump earlier tweeted that “details of Summit” between him and Kim were “being worked out now,” with five possible locations being considered.
Ever disposed to set out the options in the starkest terms possible, Trump predicted a “very successful” May or June summit with Kim, after talks in Florida with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
But in the same breath, he warned: “If I think that it’s a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we’re not going to go. If the meeting, when I’m there, is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting.”
“I like always remaining flexible, and we’ll remain flexible here,” Trump added.
The United States and North Korea-foes since a bloody, muddy hot conflict of the 1950s and the ideological battles of the Cold War-have had peace within sight before.
But with similarly risk-taking mercurial leaders in both Washington and Pyongyang, there are hopes the two countries can go a step further than 2000, when Kim’s father and Bill Clinton met each other’s emissaries, but never each other.
Trump said Wednesday, with Abe at his side, that the North had “a bright path available” if it was willing to abandon nuclear weapons.
North Korea’s military is an integral part of the ruling regime, and officials and outside experts say it is still not clear that Kim is willing to completely give up those weapons.
Pyongyang consistently talks of “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula”-code for the removal of America’s military presence in the South, something long unthinkable in Washington – while Trump refers to the denuclearization of North Korea.
In Florida, Trump echoed the sentiments of his guest, Abe, saying that North Korea must denuclearize in a “complete and verifiable and irreversible” way.
The comments set the stage for a pair of potentially historic summits.
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he hoped his improbable summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un would go ahead-but warned he was not afraid to walk away if the meeting appears unlikely to be “fruitful.”
The odds of the Trump-Kim talks taking place were boosted by the shock news of secret Easter weekend talks between CIA chief Mike Pompeo and the reclusive thirty-something strongman-the most significant US-North Korea contacts in almost two decades.
On Wednesday, Trump confirmed the clandestine meeting had happened, heaping praise on Pompeo-the man he has already tapped to be the next secretary of state-and saying his covert mission to the North Korean capital had been a success.
“He just left North Korea. Had a great meeting with Kim Jong Un, and got along with him really well, really great,” Trump said. “He’s very smart but he gets along with people.”
Trump earlier tweeted that “details of Summit” between him and Kim were “being worked out now,” with five possible locations being considered.
Ever disposed to set out the options in the starkest terms possible, Trump predicted a “very successful” May or June summit with Kim, after talks in Florida with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
But in the same breath, he warned: “If I think that it’s a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we’re not going to go. If the meeting, when I’m there, is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave the meeting.”
“I like always remaining flexible, and we’ll remain flexible here,” Trump added.
The United States and North Korea-foes since a bloody, muddy hot conflict of the 1950s and the ideological battles of the Cold War-have had peace within sight before.
But with similarly risk-taking mercurial leaders in both Washington and Pyongyang, there are hopes the two countries can go a step further than 2000, when Kim’s father and Bill Clinton met each other’s emissaries, but never each other.
Trump said Wednesday, with Abe at his side, that the North had “a bright path available” if it was willing to abandon nuclear weapons.
North Korea’s military is an integral part of the ruling regime, and officials and outside experts say it is still not clear that Kim is willing to completely give up those weapons.
Pyongyang consistently talks of “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula”-code for the removal of America’s military presence in the South, something long unthinkable in Washington – while Trump refers to the denuclearization of North Korea.
In Florida, Trump echoed the sentiments of his guest, Abe, saying that North Korea must denuclearize in a “complete and verifiable and irreversible” way.
The comments set the stage for a pair of potentially historic summits.
