Trump administration officials have privately mentioned establishing a meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean chief Kim Jong Un when Trump visits Asia subsequent month, although many are skeptical that it’ll in the end occur, sources aware of the matter mentioned.
Officials haven’t but performed any of the intense logistical planning they would wish to do to rearrange such a go to, the sources mentioned, pointing to the truth that there haven’t been any communications between Washington and Pyongyang like Trump had at occasions during his first time period. Trump’s preliminary outreach to the North Korean chief earlier this yr by no means acquired a reply as a result of the North Koreans wouldn’t settle for the letter, two sources instructed NCS.
For the upcoming trip, the White House has as an alternative been way more focused on arranging a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping amid escalating commerce tensions between the US and China.
But Trump has publicly and privately expressed a need to fulfill his North Korean counterpart, and officials have left the door open to a meeting whereas he’s on his trip to Asia. In Trump’s first time period, officials organized a handshake between the two men in the Korean demilitarized zone in lower than 48 hours after the president tweeted an invitation to get collectively — an instance of how rapidly issues can change.
Trump’s private curiosity in a possible sit-down with Kim was initially piqued after Trump hosted South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on the White House in August, the sources mentioned. During their meeting, Lee formally invited Trump to attend the gathering of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) commerce ministers in South Korea and prompt the setting may present Trump with a first-rate alternative to fulfill with Kim, NCS beforehand reported.
Trump was open to the concept, telling Lee he would look into it.
“I will do that, and we’ll have talks. He’d like to meet with me,” Trump mentioned of the North Korean chief. “We look forward to meeting with him, and we’ll make relations better.”
For his half, Kim additionally expressed an openness to sitting down with Trump during a speech earlier than the North Korean parliament final month, in keeping with feedback carried by North Korean state media.
“Personally, I still have good memories of US President Trump,” Kim mentioned during his speech, per the stories. “If the US drops its hollow obsession with denuclearization and wants to pursue peaceful coexistence with North Korea based on the recognition of reality, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the US.”
But issues have shifted since Trump met Kim in 2019 at Panmunjom on the border that divides the 2 Koreas. South Korea performed a serious half in bringing North Korea again to the desk and laying the groundwork for that meeting, through which Trump turn into the primary US president step foot within the remoted and reclusive North.
Ties between the 2 Koreas had been a lot hotter then. South Korea’s new president has solely been in energy a couple of months and has but to undo the legacy of his predecessor, who was way more hawkish in the direction of Kim’s regime.
According to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, there is no such thing as a ongoing communication between South and North Korea relating to a attainable North Korea-US summit.
And whereas White House safety groups have made two journeys to South Korea to scout out places forward of Trump’s arrival, none of these journeys was to the Panmunjom space, a South Korean authorities supply mentioned, suggesting a repeat of the 2019 summit with Kim just isn’t within the playing cards for now.
The White House declined to remark.
A rapidly organized handshake
The high-profile summits between Trump and Kim during the president’s first time period failed to perform the president’s predominant aim: reining in North Korea’s nuclear program.
Their conferences in Hanoi and Singapore got here after intense prep work between the 2 sides that centered closely on logistics and substance. As a end result, administration officials and specialists consider that in the event that they had been to fulfill once more, either side must be making preparations now.
But not each engagement between the 2 leaders was constructed upon the extended planning of working-level officials. The final meeting between Trump and Kim in 2019 was organized rapidly after the president tweeted an invite to get collectively.
The put up abruptly set the wheels into movement for the 2 to fulfill on the DMZ – a now well-known go to that resulted in Trump briefly stepping over the demarcation line into North Korea.
At the time of that invitation, there had not been any energetic communications between the 2 sides for months, NCS beforehand reported. Rather, Trump had departed his final summit with the North Korean chief in Hanoi earlier that yr with out a deal or any indicators of progress, signaling the breakdown of diplomatic efforts on the highest stage.
“Sometimes you have to walk,” Trump said during a information convention following the conclusion of the Hanoi summit, which broke up sooner than deliberate. “This was just one of those times.”
Prior to Trump’s 2019 South Korea trip, his former North Korea staffers had thought of making an attempt to arrange one other meeting between the 2 leaders, however in the end determined towards it as a result of they didn’t suppose that the second was ripe to attract North Korea again to the desk, in keeping with former administration officials.
That modified, nonetheless, when Trump started expressing curiosity in a sit down whereas he was on the bottom in Asia.
The president talked about a attainable meeting when he met with Chinese chief Xi on the time. He requested his then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo if he thought it will be a good suggestion, in keeping with a former administration official. Pompeo mentioned he would look into it. To the shock of most of the members of the staff engaged on the North Korea portfolio, Trump’s tweet went out the subsequent morning.
“After some very important meetings, including my meeting with President Xi of China, I will be leaving Japan for South Korea (with President Moon). While there, if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!” Trump tweeted.
Trump administration officials instantly went into overdrive as they tried to determine if Kim would settle for. A Korean Central News Agency article got here out hours after Trump’s tweet signaling Pyongyang’s openness to the meeting – one thing the Trump administration carefully famous, the previous official mentioned. While the article said that the North Koreans didn’t know the aim of the meeting, they didn’t shut the door on the likelihood. Administration officials at that time believed a meeting was extremely doubtless, the supply mentioned.
The Trump administration then activated the US-North Korea hotline positioned on the DMZ that’s manned 24/7 by a US army officer who speaks Korean. But the calls went unanswered. Then they turned to a different tactic that that they had used earlier than: a bullhorn. A US army officer went to the border and used the bullhorn to venture the message to the North Korean aspect that the US was making an attempt to speak with them a couple of leader-level meeting, the previous official mentioned. On the opposite aspect, a North Korean recorded the message however didn’t reply.
Hours later, the hotline rang with an invite for a US delegation to return to North Korea for a planning meeting. The US delegation, which included the Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun, State Department official Kevin Kim and the NSA Senior Director for the Korean Peninsula Allison Hooker, flew from Seoul to the DMZ the identical evening that Trump’s tweet had been despatched, the place they met for about an hour with their North Korean counterparts. The two sides mentioned the attainable meeting however nothing was formally agreed to, and the Trump administration officials left with North Korea’s request for an in depth proposal by midnight. That proposal was faxed to Pyongyang when the officials returned to Seoul.
North Korea’s response didn’t come in a single day, and within the morning, US officials had been monitoring each attainable channel carefully. Then a transparent sign got here by: the North Koreans had despatched an expansive staff to wash their aspect of the area alongside the Military Demarcation Line that divides North and South Korea, which was extremely uncommon. Then the hotline rang, and the information got here that Kim Jong Un would partake within the meeting with Trump later that day.
As he approached the North Korean chief, Trump took 20 steps into the nation, making historical past as the primary sitting US chief to set foot within the hermit kingdom. The two leaders then shook arms and met for about an hour.