Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered preparations for a second summit with President Donald Trump, saying he’ll “wait with patience and in good faith” to work toward a common goal, the North’s state media reported on Thursday.
Despite Kim’s determination for another meeting with Trump, the two remain at odds over fundamental issues. Experts say a major sticking point is what denuclearization steps Kim should take to move forward stalled nuclear diplomacy and what rewards Trump should provide to push Kim to take those measures.
The Korean Central News Agency said Kim received a letter from Trump from a North Korean envoy who met the U.S. president in Washington last week. After meeting with Kim’s envoy, top lieutenant Kim Yong Chol, Trump said that he and Kim Jong Un will probably meet around the end of February but did not say exactly when and where the summit would take place.
Thursday’s report said Kim expressed satisfaction over his envoy’s meeting with Trump and spoke highly of the U.S. president for “expressing his unusual determination and will for the settlement of the issue with a great interest in the second summit.”
“We will wait with patience and in good faith and, together with the US, advance step by step toward the goal to be reached by the two countries,” Kim was quoted as saying.
Kim also “set forth tasks and orientation for making good technical preparations for the second (North Korea)-US summit high on the agenda,” according to KCNA. Nuclear diplomacy has been stuck since
Kim and Trump met in Singapore last June for their first summit, which ended with a vague denuclearization pledge by Kim that his government had previously used when it called for the withdrawal of the 28,500 US troops in South Korea.
A summit accord also stated that the United States and North Korea will commit to establishing new relations and join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
The strongest step Kim could promise to take for a second summit may be abandoning his long-range missile program targeting the US mainland. That step, if realized, would trigger a strong backlash from many in South Korea and Japan, which are still placed in the striking distance of North Korea’s short- and medium-range missiles. (AP)
