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Trump-Kim Summit in Play as Moon Visits White House

Trump-Kim Summit in Play as Moon Visits White House
folder_openUnited States access_time5 years ago
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US President Donald Trump holds a high-stakes meeting with South Korea's president Moon Jae-in at the White House Tuesday, talks that could decide whether Trump's much-vaunted summit with the North's leader Kim Jong Un goes ahead.

Trump-Kim Summit in Play as Moon Visits White House

Meanwhile, Moon jets into Washington on a mission to salvage a rare diplomatic opening between the US and North Korea that is in trouble almost before it begins.

Trump had agreed to meet Kim in Singapore on June 12, but the first-ever US-North Korea summit is now in serious doubt, with both sides expressing reservations.

South Korea -- worried about Kim's bellicose weapons testing and Trump's similarly bellicose warnings about a looming war -- was instrumental in convincing the two Cold War foes to sit down and talk.

Moon sent his own national security advisor to the White House in March, carrying an offer of talks and word that North Korea may be willing to abandon nuclear weapons, an enticing prospect.

Trump surprised his guests, his own aides and the world by summarily accepting the meeting, seeing an opportunity to "do a deal" and avoid military confrontation.

Pyongyang is on the verge of marrying nuclear and missile technology allowing it to hit the continental United States with a nuke, a capability Washington sees as wholly unacceptable.

Earlier this month, North Korea denounced US demands for "unilateral nuclear abandonment" and canceled at the last minute a high-level meeting with the South in protest over joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.

Trump responded by saying the meeting may or may not take place.

For his part, US Vice President Mike Pence warned in an interview on Monday night that there was "no question" that Trump would be prepared to walk away from the talks with Kim if it looks like they won't yield results and that the president was not just after a public relations triumph. 

Pence said that both the Clinton and Bush administrations "got played" by North Korea when Washington previously tried to get Pyongyang to denuclearize but the current administration would not make the same mistakes.

"It would be a great mistake for Kim Jong Un to think he could play Donald Trump," he told Fox News.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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