Top North Korean general, Kim Yong Chol is in Washington Friday on a rare visit. Chol is expected to meet President Donald Trump as the two countries seek to finalise a new summit aimed at denuclearisation and easing decades of hostility.
The North Korean negotiator abruptly cancelled his last planned talks in the United States — a meeting set two months ago in New York with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and this time the administration has tread cautiously, not announcing his visit in advance. According to a source,
Pompeo is expected tp welcome Kim on Friday for a meal in Washington before the two are expected to head together to the White House.
Trump has repeatedly hailed his diplomacy as a triumph, recently saying there would have been "a nice big fat war in Asia" if it were not for him.
He has said to expect an announcement soon about the second summit, with diplomats seeing Vietnam and Thailand as possible venues In a sign that frictions have eased since the official's no-show in November, Trump - who has mused that he and Kim Jong Un are "in love" - said he received a warm new letter from the North Korean leader earlier this month.
For Trump, the made-for-television summitry with the young and elusive North Korean leader also offers a welcome respite from other developments at home. Like, special counsel Robert Mueller probing into Russia's possible collusion with Trump's presidential campaign and the prolonged shutdown owing to his insistence that Congress fund a wall on the Mexican border.
Even as United States insists on maintaining maximum pressure until Pyongyang moves forward on giving up its nuclear weapons, Kim backed by China and South Korea is hoping for easing of international sanctions. The stakes are high for Kim as he seeks to ensure his regime survives.
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In Singapore, Kim promised his "unwavering commitment to complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula." And Trump has repeatedly voiced eagerness to see Kim Jong Un again after their landmark June summit in Singapore. The Singapore meet was the first official meet between leaders of both the countries post 1953 when they met to end the Korean war.
But the two sides appear to have different ideas on how to define that, with the United States expecting North Korea to give up nuclear weapons assembled over decades of work and Pyongyang more broadly seeking an end to what it sees as US threats.
“I think there is obviously still disagreement on how to get there — whether denuclearisation is the end of the process or the process itself,” said Jenny Town, managing editor of the 38 North web journal on North Korea policy at the Stimson Center. She noted that Americans have traditionally preferred to hash out the details of agreements before big summits, while the type of leader-driven diplomacy favoured by Trump is more common in Asia. “People have been very skeptical of this top-down approach, but we won't know unless we try it,” she said. Pompeo in a recent interview voiced hope at reaching a deal with North Korea that would "create a much better, safer America" but cautioned that it was unlikely to be finished during the next summit.