Washington Times: Trump, Moon to meet amid uncertainty over Kim Jong-un summit
President Trump will host South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House next week for a meeting expected to center on clarifying and aligning the expectations that Washington and Seoul have for Mr. Trump’s upcoming summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.
The Moon visit Tuesday comes amid uncertainty over the planned June 12 summit after North Korea threatened this week to pull out amid anger over National Security Advisor John R. Bolton’s claims that Washington seeks a quick, verifiable, “Libya model” denuclearization from Pyongyang.
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WNU Editor: I know that for South Korean President Moon .... laying the ground work for peace talks and reconciliation with North Korea is the number one priority on his agenda. And when he arrives in Washington this week, he will be pushing that agenda with President Trump .... North Korea's about-face complicates South Korea's pitch to Trump (Reuters). But North Korea's abrupt breaking of ties with South Korea, and stating unequivocally that they will not end their nuclear and missile programs, has put these talks on ice. For the past few days I have been reflecting on what has happened this week, and it reminds me on what happened in the Kremlin when the U.S. under President Reagan were negotiating with the Soviets on a nuclear arms agreement. The same thing occurred. In public the Soviet leadership supported and praised these talks when they started .... but a few weeks later they did a complete reversal .... denouncing and suspending talks. And why was the Soviet leadership acting this way .... they were acting this way because of their own internal divisions and the lack of leadership from the top to take those final steps to an agreement. This is what I think is happening in North Korea right now. Kim Jong-un may be the supreme leader of North Korea, but there are a lot of people below him who do support him but differ with him on these talks. He is giving them recognition and an acknowledgement on their opinon .... hence why we are here today. As for 3everyone else .... bottom line .... North Korea is not ready to proceed with these talks. If I was President Trump I would announce that in view of the current situation, the Singapore Summit will be held at a time when more progress has been made, but in the interim sanctions will continue, and the U.S. will consult with China/Japan/and South Korea on what needs to be done next. By acting this way the pressure returns to North Korea on getting their act together, and more importantly, putting pressure on China that if this derails and all the promises that were not made are not kept, there will be political and economic consequences.
