Trump plans to meet North Korea's Kim in Vietnam on February 27-28 - Politico

[webfact]

Trump plans to meet North Korea's Kim in Vietnam Feb 27-28

By Patricia Zengerle

 

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un hold a signing ceremony at the conclusion of their summit at the Capella Hotel on the resort island of Sentosa, Singapore June 12, 2018. Picture taken June 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would hold his second meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam on Feb. 27 and 28, while giving himself credit for avoiding a major war on the Korean Peninsula.

 

In his annual State of the Union address to Congress, Trump said much work remained to be done in the push for peace with North Korea, but cited the halt in Pyongyang's nuclear testing and no new missile launches in 15 months as signs of progress.

 

"If I had not been elected president of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea," Trump said in his address.

 

His relationship with Kim, he noted, "is a good one."

 

Trump met Kim on June 12 in Singapore in the first summit between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. Trump has been eager to hold a second summit in spite of a lack of concrete progress in persuading North Korea to give up a nuclear weapons programme that threatens the United States.

 

Communist-ruled Vietnam, which has good relations with both the United States and North Korea, had been widely touted as the most likely venue for the meeting. Trump did not say which Vietnamese city would host the two leaders, but both the capital, Hanoi, and Da Nang have been considered possibilities.

 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Vietnam in July and urged North Korea to follow its example, saying Trump believed Pyongyang could replicate Hanoi's path to normal relations with Washington and prosperity after its own war with the United States.

 

U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun was due to hold talks in Pyongyang this week to map out what he called "a set of concrete deliverables" for the second meeting.

 

The Singapore summit yielded a vague commitment from Kim to work toward the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, where U.S. troops have been stationed since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

 

In the U.S. view, Pyongyang has yet to take concrete steps to give up its nuclear weapons. North Korea has complained that Washington has done little to reciprocate its freezing of nuclear and missile testing and dismantling of some nuclear facilities.

 

Pyongyang has repeatedly urged a lifting of punishing U.S.-led sanctions, a formal end to the war, and security guarantees.

 

Trump has hailed "tremendous progress" in his dealings with North Korea. But on the eve of Biegun's trip, a confidential report by U.N. sanctions monitors seen by Reuters cast further doubt on North Korea's intentions.

 

It said the country's nuclear and ballistic missile programs remained intact and that North Korea was working to make sure those capabilities could not be destroyed by any military strikes.

 

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Makini Brice and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Cooney)

 

(Reporting by Makini Brice)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-02-06

[HLover]

It would be amazing and historical if a real deal was accomplished.

[blazes]

Art of the Deal time?  How much or what will it take to buy Kim off?  We should know by about August 2020.

[klauskunkel]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Trump plans to meet North Korea's Kim in Vietnam Feb 27-28

I think they should meet on Valentine's Day... 

[KhunBENQ]

Thank heaven, not Bangkok as was in discussion some time ago.

[Nyezhov]

7 hours ago, HLover said:

It would be amazing and historical if a real deal was accomplished.

Yes it would be. And wonderful too.

[bristolboy]

1 minute ago, Nyezhov said:

Yes it would be. And wonderful too.

And if it fails, at least North Korea gotten itself some easing of the sanctions and some international respect. And the US has gotten....???

[bristolboy]

7 hours ago, HLover said:

It would be amazing and historical if a real deal was accomplished.

Hoping for a miracle is no excuse for doing something stupidly.

[Thailand]

And Xi will have issued instructions on how to proceed.

[mickymouse1]

Plans? Lift and end sanctions you will get the results required with the blessing of the CHINESE of course.

[Srikcir]

Kim has a possible backup plan for denuclearization:

Moscow had offered Pyongyang a nuclear power plant in exchange for denuclearization as a means of inserting itself into the ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea.

The deal would have allegedly seen Russia operate the plant and ship all nuclear waste back to Russia as a guarantee that the material couldn’t be used to make weapons.

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-offered-north-korea-nuclear-power-donald-trump-kim-jong-un-1310010

[sanemax]

14 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

And if it fails, at least North Korea gotten itself some easing of the sanctions and some international respect. And the US has gotten....???

Kim & Don are buddies now , its in neither of their interests to have another argument

[bristolboy]

Just now, sanemax said:

Kim & Don are buddies now , its in neither of their interests to have another argument

Therefore...?

[bristolboy]

1 minute ago, sanemax said:

Kim & Don are buddies now , its in neither of their interests to have another argument

And the possiblity of this plan being implemented depends on believing that Kim's motives for creating a nuclear industry is for electricity. Which is why he's making nuclear weapons?

[Sydebolle]

1 hour ago, KhunBENQ said:

Thank heaven, not Bangkok as was in discussion some time ago.

Well, was this not the case until the new "Visa Regulation of the Day" was published; section "Visa on Arrival" was published? 

[Tug]

I think Donald cashed the best chips allready I think he is setting Kim up.kim has been using this time to decentralize his nuclear assets i sincerely hope I am wrong 

[mike324]

ahaha, when was the last major war the US had with NK? The fact that Trump would welcome a mass murder dictator to the WH in the future is simply mind blowing.

[bristolboy]

17 hours ago, Tug said:

I think Donald cashed the best chips allready I think he is setting Kim up.kim has been using this time to decentralize his nuclear assets i sincerely hope I am wrong 

I don't think Trump knows enough to know how to set Kim up.

[sanemax]

17 minutes ago, mike324 said:

ahaha, when was the last major war the US had with NK? The fact that Trump would welcome a mass murder dictator to the WH in the future is simply mind blowing.

Th meeting is scheduled to be held in Vietnam 

[scorecard]

Yep it's a good relationship, for example all the insults the clown has thrown at his new friend.

[sanemax]

1 minute ago, scorecard said:

Yep it's a good relationship, for example all the insults the clown has thrown at his new friend.

What insults have they traded , since they became "friends" 

[bristolboy]

43 minutes ago, sanemax said:

What insults have they traded , since they became "friends" 

You're right. No insults traded. In fact, they're more than just "friends."

'We fell in love:' Trump swoons over letters from North Korea's Kim

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-trump/we-fell-in-love-trump-swoons-over-letters-from-north-koreas-kim-idUSKCN1MA03Q

[mike324]

On 2/7/2019 at 12:32 PM, sanemax said:

Th meeting is scheduled to be held in Vietnam 

Yes I know, but Trump said he will welcome him in the US when the time comes.