Trump is preparing meeting with Kim Jong-un in November - WSJ learned about White House’s plans
U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed his team to prepare for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late fall, hoping to persuade Pyongyang to denuclearize.
According to Censor.NET, The Wall Street Journal reports this, citing sources in the White House.
Trump Wants Talks with Kim Jong Un
Sources told the publication that Trump had discussed with his advisers the possibility of holding face-to-face talks with Kim during his upcoming trip to Asia in November to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China.
However, no official preparations are currently underway for a meeting between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea, and the White House has diplomatically stated that it will take place at the appropriate time.
Expectations for the meeting
"Trump sees the meeting with Kim as an opportunity to resume dialogue and try to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. However, experts and a number of U.S. officials do not expect significant progress from such talks," the WSJ reports.
It is also noted that the U.S. president wanted to hold talks with the North Korean leader during his Asian tour last fall, and at that time, Pyongyang made it clear that it had no objection to such a meeting. However, the parties were unable to resolve logistical issues due to the limited time available for preparation.
Previous meetings
- During his first term as president, Trump met with Kim three times to convince him to halt his nuclear program.
- The first-ever summit between the leaders of the United States and North Korea took place in Singapore in June 2018 and concluded with the signing of a framework declaration that called for the denuclearization of North Korea in exchange for U.S. security guarantees to Pyongyang.
- The second meeting in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, in February 2019 ended prematurely without any documents being signed, after which a third, impromptu summit took place in June of that year in the Demilitarized Zone on the border between North and South Korea.
- At that time, Trump—who became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot on North Korean soil—shook hands with Kim, but that handshake did not lead to a real breakthrough on the issue of Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
