Dynamite News Trump asks what a third North Korean summit would yield
US President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in held a summit in New York on Monday to discuss plans to restart U.S.-North Korea talks, as Seoul’s spy agency said the negotiations could take place in two to three weeks.
New York: US President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in held a summit in New York on Monday to discuss plans to restart U.S.-North Korea talks, as Seoul’s spy agency said the negotiations could take place in two to three weeks.
Negotiations aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs have stalled since a failed second summit between Trump and its leader Kim Jong Un in February. Pyongyang has said it is willing to restart working-level talks in late September, but no date or location have been set. Trump and Moon discussed ways to achieve practical results in the U.S.-North Korea working-level talks, Moon’s office said, while Trump expressed his confidence that Kim will fulfill commitments made during the two summits, according to a White House statement.
“There’s been no nuclear testing at all,” Trump told reporters as he met Moon on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
“And the relationships have been very good. ... We want to see if we can do something. If we can, that’ll be great. And if we can’t, that’s fine, we’ll see what happens.”
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Moon said he hopes working-level negotiations between the United States and North Korea will be held soon to prepare for another summit, but Trump said he would want to know what would result from a third summit with Kim before agreeing to hold it.
“Right now, people would like to see that happen. I want to know what’s going to be coming out of it. We can know a lot before the summit takes place,” Trump said.
In Seoul, South Korean lawmakers briefed by a spy agency on Tuesday said Pyongyang and Washington could resume working-level talks within two to three weeks.
Last week, Trump distanced himself from a suggestion by his former national security adviser, John Bolton, for a Libyan model of denuclearization for North Korea, saying it “set us back very badly”. Bolton was fired this month, with Trump naming Robert O’Brien as new national security adviser.
Before his sit-down with Moon, Trump said the two would discuss North Korea’s repeated launches of short-range missiles in recent weeks.
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“We didn’t have an agreement on short-range missiles. And a lot of people and a lot of countries test short-range missiles,” Trump added. “There’s nothing spectacular about that.” The meeting came as the allies hold discussions in Seoul on renewing a deal on how to share costs for the upkeep of American soldiers in South Korea.
Trump and Moon talked about how a “quick conclusion” of a new military burden sharing agreement before the end of 2019 will be a way to further strengthen their alliance, the White House said in a statement.
South Korea has shouldered part of the cost of stationing what is now about 28,500 U.S. troops in the country since a 1991 pact. In March, it signed a deal with the United States to pay 1.04 trillion won ($870.94 million) this year - an increase of 8.2% on the year. The agreement expires at the end of this year.
Trump has repeatedly urged the South to contribute more to the cost. “Talks have begun to further increase payments to the United States”, he wrote last month on Twitter, adding, “South Korea is a very wealthy nation”.
Moon detailed South Korea’s contribution to the stationing of U.S. troops in Korea, including increasing purchases of U.S. weapons, future purchase plans, as well as a steady increase in South Korea’s share of costs, the senior Blue House official said. (Reuters)