Trump says 'my friend Kim' has great opportunity at second summit

By Soyoung Kim and Jeff Mason

 

U.S. President Donald Trump and Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong stand before a signing ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam, February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis

 

HANOI (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meet on Wednesday for their second summit, betting their personal relationship can break a stalemate over the North's nuclear weapons and end more than 70 years of hostility.

 

Despite little progress toward his stated goal of ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons since first meeting Kim in Singapore last year, Trump has said he is fully committed to his personal diplomacy with Kim.

 

Trump said late last year he and Kim "fell in love", and on the eve of his departure for the second summit said they had developed "a very, very good relationship".

 

Whether the bonhomie can move them beyond summit pageantry to substantive progress on eliminating Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal that threatens the United States is the question that will dominate their talks in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

 

"Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth. North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize," Trump said on Twitter.

"The potential is AWESOME, a great opportunity, like almost none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong Un. We will know fairly soon - Very Interesting!"

 

Trump and Kim will meet at the Metropole hotel at 6:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) for a 20-minute, one-on-one chat followed by a dinner with aides, the White House said.

 

The elegant interior of the 118-year-old Metropole thronged with security and diplomatic personnel from both sides - some snapping pictures - as hotel staff made final preparations.

 

On Thursday, the two leaders will hold "a series of back and forth" meetings, the White House said. The venue for those meetings has not been announced.

 

In Singapore, they pledged to work toward denuclearisation and permanent peace on the Korean peninsula. North and South Korea have been technically still at war since their 1950-53 conflict, with the Americans backing the South, ended in a truce, not a treaty.

 

The Singapore meeting - the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader - ended with great fanfare but little substance over how to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

 

Both sides are likely to feel pressure to agree on specific measures this time - what concrete steps North Korea will take to give up the weapons, and what the United States will offer in return.

 

While the United States is demanding North Korea give up all of its nuclear and missile programmes, the North wants to see the removal of a U.S. nuclear umbrella for South Korea.

 

U.S. intelligence officials have said there is no sign North Korea will ever give up its entire arsenal of cherished nuclear weapons, which it sees as its guarantee of national security, while analysts say it won't commit to significant disarmament unless punishing U.S.-led economic sanctions are eased.

 

Trump has held out the prospect of easing them if North Korea does something "meaningful".

 

'STOP TALKING'

Any deal will face scrutiny from American lawmakers and other sceptics who doubt North Korea is really willing to give up the weapons, and who worry a compromise could squander U.S. leverage and undermine regional interests.

 

Trump scoffs at the doubters, citing a freeze in North Korea's nuclear and missile tests since 2017, and saying the United States would have gone to war with North Korea if he had not been president.

 

"The Democrats should stop talking about what I should do with North Korea and ask themselves instead why they didn’t do “it” during eight years of the Obama Administration?" he said on Twitter.

 

Whatever the outcome, the summit should boost Kim's bid to end his country's pariah status and cement his place, both on the world stage and at home.

 

As the young, third-generation leader of one of the world's most impoverished and isolated nations, living under punishing sanctions, Kim will again stand as an equal to the president of the world's most powerful country.

 

For Trump, a deal that eases the North Korean threat could hand him a big foreign-policy achievement in the midst of domestic troubles.

 

While Trump is in Hanoi, his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen is testifying before U.S. congressional committees, with the president's business practices the main focus.Anticipation has also been rising about the impending release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, though a senior U.S. Justice Department official said on Friday it would not come this week.

 

CONCESSIONS?

In the run-up to the summit, Trump has indicated a more flexible stance, saying he is in no rush to secure North Korea's denuclearisation.

 

The two sides have discussed specific and verifiable denuclearisation measures, such as allowing inspectors to observe the dismantlement of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear reactor, U.S. and South Korean officials say.

 

U.S. concessions could include opening liaison offices, declaring an end to the technical state of the Korean War or clearing the way for some inter-Korean projects.

 

Vietnam, relishing its role as mediator, could serve as a model for North Korea as it seeks a path out of isolation.

 

Vietnam normalised ties with old battlefield foe the United States in 1995 after decades of Cold War mistrust, and its "doi moi" reforms have transformed its economy.

 

Trump met Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong at the grand, colonial-era presidential palace, and said both he and Kim felt good about holding their summit in Vietnam.

 

Trump also said the United States and Vietnam would be signing trade, including one involving Boeing .

 

Vietnamese carrier Bamboo Airways is due to sign a deal with Boeing to purchase 10 planes on the sidelines of the summit, an airline executive said on Sunday.

 

(For live coverage of the summit, click: https://www.reuters.com/live/north-korea; Eikon SUMMIT LIVE [nL3N20M1H6]; Reporting by Soyoung Kim in HANOI; Editing by Robert Birsel, Nick Macfie and Lincoln Feast)

 

 

 -- © Copyright Reuters 2019-02-27

 

 

Idiot you dont have any friends and less and less of your base .

The Nattering Nabobs of Negativism crowd will never find any positive result from anything Trump accomplishes. 

42 minutes ago, webfact said:

Trump says 'my friend Kim'

I didn't know he has friends in high places  Oh I forgot, according to his spokeswoman God wanted him to become president...

4 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

The Nattering Nabobs of Negativism crowd will never find any positive result from anything Trump accomplishes. 

Not surprising really, because those who are not blinded by this conman see him for what he really is – – a liar, a conman, a cheat, a misogynist, racist, an adulterer and someone who adores himself.

 

Very hard to like a person like that or indeed that which he achieves, and to give some sort of analogy, some people say that Bernie Madoff had one or two good points, but they do have a lot in common!

11 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

The Nattering Nabobs of Negativism crowd will never find any positive result from anything Trump accomplishes. 

If he ever accomplishes anything....

Yeah, Donnie- your "friend" Kim has another great opportunity: to play himself of as a political leader on the world stage and to lead you around the arena, like bull, on a nose- ring!

You utter....

57 minutes ago, webfact said:

"Vietnam is thriving like few places on earth. North Korea would be the same, and very quickly, if it would denuclearize," Trump said on Twitter. 

"The potential is AWESOME, a great opportunity, like almost none other in history, for my friend Kim Jong Un. We will know fairly soon - Very Interesting!"

Trump just doesn't get it.  He doesn't understand the priorities of Kim Jong Un.  It's not prosperity for all, or freedom, or even peace.  The number one priority, above all else, is regime survival.  Fat Boy wants to stay in power.  A "thriving" N. Korea may even jeopardize that.  I can't believe someone like Trump is negotiating on our behalf.  He's freakin dumber than a bag of rocks.

All Kim has to do is deposit a billion dollars into an offshore bank account controlled by The Donald and he can have as many nuclear weapons as his little heart desires.

 

 

 

 

Mrs. Betty Bowers:

 

34 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

Trump just doesn't get it.  He doesn't understand the priorities of Kim Jong Un.  It's not prosperity for all, or freedom, or even peace.  The number one priority, above all else, is regime survival.  Fat Boy wants to stay in power.  A "thriving" N. Korea may even jeopardize that.  I can't believe someone like Trump is negotiating on our behalf.  He's freakin dumber than a bag of rocks.

Even if this would be a possibility: how long -with even the most optimistic outlook- would it take, to turn North Korea into something, even mildly resembling a "civilized" country?

They go pitchblack at night, for God's sake!

Edited February 27, 20197 yr by DM07

  

When Donald met Kim. Sweet! ????

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-does-trump-fall-in-love-with-bad-men/2019/02/26/d7bcd0d4-3a0f-11e9-aaae-69364b2ed137_story.html
 

Quote

Why does Trump fall in love with bad men?

Why does President Trump fall in love with bad men?

One man — let’s call him “Jong Un” to protect his privacy — imprisons, tortures and kills people without trial. He starves millions and apparently ordered his own half brother killed. 
…

 

 

1 hour ago, Berkshire said:

Fat Boy wants to stay in power. 

Which one of the two "fat boys" are you talking about?

47 minutes ago, klauskunkel said:

  

The level of toxic narcissism in that picture makes nuclear weapons obsolete.

Go Donald go, we all love you, you are the man.????

1 minute ago, colinneil said:

Go Donald go, we all love you, you are the man.????

I would agree that all people of good will hope there is a productive result of the meeting in Hanoi.

Hopefully more than superficial photo ops that basically meant nothing except for some unearned giveaways to Kim as happened in Singapore.

On the we all love you part, that is total 100 percent B.S.

Edited February 27, 20197 yr by Jingthing

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

I would agree that all people of good will hope there is a productive result of the meeting in Hanoi.

Hopefully more than superficial photo ops that basically meant nothing except for some unearned giveaways to Kim as happened in Singapore.

On the we all love you part, that is total 100 percent B.S.

There was poor little me thinking you were a Donald supporter.????

2 hours ago, DM07 said:

Even if this would be a possibility: how long -with even the most optimistic outlook- would it take, to turn North Korea into something, even mildly resembling a "civilized" country?

They go pitchblack at night, for God's sake!

You think that question is new? The west has been questioning the dynasty’s ability to keep going for 70 years! It assumes there is a will to change.

"Pitchblack at night???  So, fossil-fuel burning is off for up to 12 hours every night, then?

 

This must mean that Kim has been listening to our Ecojustice Warriors.  He (and they) deserve some kind of Nobel handout for helping to save the planet.

 

TDS is full force in this thread [emoji23]

Orange man bad! Nuclear hostility good!


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I love all the people with TDS here all saying Trumps a clown evil etc. If I recall the 2 Bushes Clinton saint Obama the UN the EU etc were trying to keep North Korea from having nuclear weapons. Tell me all the Trump haters how that worked out.

It is of coarse no accident that Vietnam was chosen for this meeting Trump showing Kim what a communist country can achieve and still retain control because that is what Kim wants.

Everyone else wants the nuclear weapons gone. But lets not try something different because all the Trump haters like Empire star Jussie Smollett another clown and liar knows best right.

TDS is full force in this thread [emoji23]

Orange man bad! Nuclear hostility good!


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It's not actually a binary choice as you present it.

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I love all the people with TDS here all saying Trumps a clown evil etc. If I recall the 2 Bushes Clinton saint Obama the UN the EU etc were trying to keep North Korea from having nuclear weapons. Tell me all the Trump haters how that worked out.

It is of coarse no accident that Vietnam was chosen for this meeting Trump showing Kim what a communist country can achieve and still retain control because that is what Kim wants.

Everyone else wants the nuclear weapons gone. But lets not try something different because all the Trump haters like Empire star Jussie Smollett another clown and liar knows best right.

Lets see actual results first before getting overly excited. Sure testing has stopped but word is they didn't really need to do much more testing. I still think it's obvious Kim is never going to denuke and 45 is certainly not going to force him. What 45 obviously wants is the optics that he solved the problem that he somewhat amplified with his earlier insane rhetoric. Then Nobel prize, no impeachment, reelection, and no prison. Or so he hopes.

 

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I'm in favor of talking but so far Kim has played 45 bigly.

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Playing Donny is about as easy as playing bongo drums underwater. Can you list the tangible ways Kim has “played” Trump. Use your sources. All I can think of off the top of my head is is pulling back some of the more jingoistic war games that are meant to incite tensions. No sanctions have been removed, and Kim is dismantling sites as we speak while also seeming much more open to the idea of a richer and less ostracized NK. If being friendly with the USA is an option, why would they opt to seize on it for mere photo ops? Photo ops do not solve the issues of juche and the NK power structure. Even Kim himself could be a target for a military coup, and he knows it very well.


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The joint military exercises are for preparedness. 

Calling them "war games" is something Kim did (and so are you) that 45 played along with.

So nuclear sites are being dismantled?

You realize that NK dictators are masters at this game, right, and 45 is a rank amateur that is too lazy and intellectually incurious to even read briefing reports?
 

Quote

Questions Remain After North Korea Says It Will Dismantle Nuclear Weapon Fuel Sites

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/31/690468780/questions-remain-after-north-korea-says-it-will-dismantle-nuclear-weapon-fuel-si

 

The joint military exercises are for preparedness.  Calling them "war games" is something Kim did (and so are you) that 45 played along with.

So nuclear sites are being dismantled?

You realize that NK dictators are masters at this game, right, and 45 is a rank amateur that is too lazy and intellectually incurious to even read briefing reports?

 

 

 

Questions Remain After North Korea Says It Will Dismantle Nuclear Weapon Fuel Sites

 

 

Use a real source, not a communist rag like NPR.

 

 

In the real world they’re called war games. Always have been always will be. No brass will call a war game a “military preparedness exercise” because that’s boring as hell and doesn’t fire the grunts up.

 

Onto your next misplaced point, the IAEA and various nations have already been invited to witness and participate in the dismantlement. UNSC opening liaison offices. It’s going just fine, and the UN also backs up this assertion. Blindly claiming “Trump is a fool for negotiating with this premiere nuclear terrorist state on ambivalent terms” just shows your jingoism and inability to pragmatically solve such a situation that was allowed by our corrupt government. Would you prefer they keep winding up more bombs, and hoping “harmless military exercises” makes them feel like there is no impending threat to survival?

 

 

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The one thing L'il Kim wants more than anything is personal safety. He saw what happened to Ghadaffi, Hussein, etc and does not want to end up beaten to death in a gutter in Pyong Yang. If Pres. Trump can convince him that prosperity for the North Korean people will guarantee Kim's hide will not be nailed to the barn door, then the two can do business.  

 

As for the naysayers and name callers, the less said the better. 

Are those the only two choices? I think not. 

I'm happy an American president is talking to the NK dictator. 

I think this particular American president is a clown, a fool, a con man, massively criminally corrupt, and no I don't trust him to make a good deal with NK or anyone else.

He sells himself as a great negotiator. He's actually crap at it.

Considering what a moral black hole 45 is does anyone actually believe he is really negotiating in the interests of peace and what's best for the American people and the region? I don't. All he has ever done is look after his own personal self interest. He's looking for the appearance of glory. Whether there is substance behind it is not his concern. 

Edited February 27, 20197 yr by Jingthing

Are those the only two choices? I think not. 
I'm happy an American president is talking to the NK dictator. 
I think this particular American president is a clown, a fool, a con man, massively criminally corrupt, and no I don't trust him to make a good deal with NK or anyone else.
He sells himself as a great negotiator. He's actually crap at it.

Great to hear your next dumptruck of opinion. So, can you propose what you would do? You have lots of opinions, none backed by fact, but you seem to wander off the farm when asked about what solutions you would propose.


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