Trump opens door to North Korea meeting as Pyongyang hints tests to continue

[webfact]

Trump opens door to North Korea meeting as Pyongyang hints tests to continue

By Ayesha Rascoe and Soyoung Kim

REUTERS

 

North Korean soldiers salute bronze statues (not pictured) of North Korea's late founder Kim Il-sung and late leader Kim Jong Il at Mansudae in Pyongyang, in this photo released by Kyodo April 25, 2017, to mark the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS/Files

 

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday opened the door to meeting North Korea's Kim Jong Un, saying he would be honoured to meet the young leader under the right circumstances, even as Pyongyang suggested it would continue its nuclear weapons tests.

 

“If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honoured to do it,” Trump told Bloomberg News, comments that drew criticism in Washington.

 

"Under the right circumstances I would meet with him," Trump said.

 

Trump did not say what conditions would need to be met for any such meeting to occur or when it could happen, but the White House later said North Korea would need to meet many conditions before a meeting could be contemplated. "Clearly conditions are not there right now," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.

 

"I don’t see this happening anytime soon," Spicer added.

 

Trump, who took office in January, had said during his presidential campaign he would be willing to meet with Kim.

 

His administration has since said North Korea must agree to abandon its nuclear and missile programs and has sought to pressure Pyongyang economically and diplomatically while insisting that military options remain "on the table."

 

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the United Nations Security Council that Washington would not negotiate with North Korea. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, earlier on Monday, said Trump had made clear "that the era of strategic patience is over."

 

Later on Monday, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said in a statement: “The United States remains open to credible talks on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula; however conditions must change before there is any scope for talks to resume,” adding that North Korea must abandon its nuclear weapons programme.

 

Despite that, Trump's statement that he would be "honoured" to meet Kim - as well as his description of the young North Korean leader over the weekend as "a pretty smart cookie" - sparked fresh concern over his approach to North Korea.

 

"I don't see much coherence in the Trump administration's statements," said Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "If there is to be any hope of getting Kim Jong Un back to the negotiating table to discuss denuclearisation, the U.S. has to articulate a clear position."

 

John Sifton, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said Trump had established a troubling pattern of paying compliments to foreign leaders with shaky human rights or autocratic reputations. "You don't have to be a psychologist to see that he admires leaders who ignore the rule of law," he said.

 

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been high for weeks, driven by fears the North might conduct a long-range missile test, or its sixth nuclear test, around the time of the April 15 anniversary of its state founder's birth.

 

Early on Monday, North Korea said it would bolster its nuclear force "to the maximum" in a "consecutive and successive way at any moment" in the face of what it calls U.S. aggression and hysteria.

 

North Korea, technically still at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty, regularly threatens to destroy the United States, Japan and South Korea and has said it will pursue its nuclear and missile programs to counter perceived U.S. aggression.

 

Trump warned in an interview with Reuters on Thursday that a "major, major conflict" with North Korea was possible, while China said last week the situation on the Korean peninsula could escalate or slip out of control.

 

In a show of force, the United States has sent the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group to waters off the Korean peninsula to join drills with South Korea to counter a series of threats of destruction from North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

 

"Now that the U.S. is kicking up the overall racket for sanctions and pressure against the DPRK, pursuant to its new DPRK policy called 'maximum pressure and engagement', the DPRK will speed up at the maximum pace the measure for bolstering its nuclear deterrence," a spokesman for North Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by its official KCNA news agency.

 

North Korea's "measures for bolstering the nuclear force to the maximum will be taken in a consecutive and successive way at any moment and any place decided by its supreme leadership," the spokesman said.

 

Reclusive North Korea has carried out five nuclear tests and a series of missile tests in defiance of U.N. Security Council and unilateral resolutions. It has been conducting tests at an unprecedented rate and is believed to have made progress in developing intermediate-range and submarine-launched missiles.

 

It test-launched a missile on Saturday which Washington and Seoul said was unsuccessful but which nevertheless drew widespread international condemnation.

 

SOUTH KOREAN MISSILE DEFENCE

 

Separately, South Korea said the United States had reaffirmed it would shoulder the cost of deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system to counter the North Korean threat, days after Trump said Seoul should pay for the $1 billion battery.

 

In a telephone call on Sunday, Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, reassured his South Korean counterpart, Kim Kwan-jin, that the U.S. alliance with South Korea was its top priority in the Asia-Pacific region, the South's presidential office said.

 

The THAAD system in South Korea has reached an initial operating capability to defend against North Korean missiles, U.S. officials said on Monday. It would not be fully operational for some months, however, one of them cautioned.

 

The THAAD deployment has drawn protests from China, which says the powerful radar that can penetrate its territory will undermine regional security, and from residents of the area in which it is being deployed, worried they will be a target for North Korean missiles.

 

Over the weekend, Trump stepped up his outreach to allies in Asia to discuss the North Korean threat.

 

As part of that effort, he invited Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to meet in Washington, a move human rights organizations condemned but which the White House defended as necessary for countering North Korea.

 

Washington is also seeking more help from China, the North's only major ally, to rein in Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development. Unlike the United States, Beijing has pushed for talks first and action later on North Korea.

 

"The United States has ... negotiated, had talks, waited patiently. All the while we've seen the regime in North Korea continue its headlong pursuit of nuclear weapons, and a ballistic missile programme. And the president said that's over," Pence told CBS News in an interview.

 

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, David Brunnstrom, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Nick Macfie, Soyoung Kim and Susan Heavey; Editing by Robert Birsel, James Dalgleish and Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-05-02

[Scott]

An off-topic post has been removed.   The topic is about N. Korea.  

[klauskunkel]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

“If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honoured to do it,” Trump told Bloomberg News

honored to meet a sociopath, murderer and utterly corrupt creature. POTUS has a way with words

[ilostmypassword]

27 minutes ago, klauskunkel said:

honored to meet a sociopath, murderer and utterly corrupt creature. POTUS has a way with words

I don't like to give Trump credit for anything but still, it's good that he indicates a willingness to talk rather than issue empty threats. And what it really is is backtracking. Trump is getting a lot of practice lately in backtracking

Edited May 2, 2017 by ilostmypassword

[Credo]

God, I hope they don't invite him to the US.   He'll eat us out of house and home and he might give Trump and even worse idea for a hair style.   

 

[rudi49jr]

2 hours ago, klauskunkel said:

honored to meet a sociopath, murderer and utterly corrupt creature. POTUS has a way with words

+1

[mesquite]

Finally we have a president who has some balls.  Obama didn't do jack with the North Korean situation.  Trump has inherited a mess.

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Kim will see this statement as a sign of weakness. He is Asian after all and is intent of flexing his county's nuclear muscles. Asian people do not have compassion as a natural emotion. If they show any it is usually for a reason, to get something out of it.Where i used to live a felang guy ran over and killed a soi dog. In an instant a woman appeared, claiming it was her favourite dog and demanded, among a flood of tears, 5000 baht as restitution.Kim will now be of the stance that Trump is now trying to back down by meeting him and them creating an understanding. In Kim's mind, he has already won the battle of wits.This will escalate in his mind as having won the war already.Trump would be wise to forget this idea as Kim is a paranoid psychopath, who clearly cannot be trusted. He has already formed the idea that he is a legend in his own life time. Remember this. There was another fool who came back from Germany, waving a piece of paper, and exclaiming, "peace in our time"

[dunroaming]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

“If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honoured to do it,” Trump told Bloomberg News, comments that drew criticism in Washington.

He really is nuts isn't he.  Where are the men in the white coats?   It is OK that we all roll around laughing at him but one day there are going to be serious consequences for his lunacy.

[Skywalker69]

5 hours ago, klauskunkel said:

honored to meet a sociopath, murderer and utterly corrupt creature. POTUS has a way with words

Birds of a feather......

[Skywalker69]

Trump called Un a "smart cookie" 

 

Ohh! I forgot he knows the best words.

[White Christmas13]

4 hours ago, Credo said:

God, I hope they don't invite him to the US.   He'll eat us out of house and home and he might give Trump and even worse idea for a hair style.   

 

Nothing wrong with Kim's  hairstyle he is just following the trend in Australia and the rest of the western world

[dunroaming]

10 minutes ago, White Christmas13 said:

Nothing wrong with Kim's  hairstyle he is just following the trend in Australia and the rest of the western world

Actually I think Kim led the way with that hairstyle and the rest of the world is following him!

[hawker9000]

If Trump shows as much backbone sitting down with fatboy as he has with dems on the spending bill, I guess we can expect nuclear ICBMs out of Pyongyang by September...

 

A meeting with fatboy is a big victory for him.  'Hope Trump rethinks this.

[Yann55]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Despite that, Trump's statement that he would be "honoured" to meet Kim - as well as his description of the young North Korean leader over the weekend as "a pretty smart cookie" - sparked fresh concern over his approach to North Korea.

 

Not a day goes by without this clown further demonstrating what an utter cretin he is, and to think that this  'smart cookie' is the President of the US send chills up the spine.

 

Unfortunately it also shows that all the 'smart cookies' who voted for him don't have enough brains to fill a thimble, and not a cent of concern and/or understanding about the 'rest of the world'.

Edited May 2, 2017 by Yann55

[dunroaming]

Interesting article from Professor Snyder who believes that Trump and his boys will attempt a coup.  He feels it is inevitable.

 

"Professor Snyder also claimed Mr Trump was already displaying a number of “fascistic” tendencies, including telling lies, publicly naming his enemies and removing opponents from his rallies – something he said was “without exaggeration, just like the 1920s and the 1930s”.

 

I think he may be exaggerating the coup theory a bit but many of his comments seem to be right on the money.  Source is The Independent.

[patekatek]

Let Kim put a nuke on the end of one of their "trustworthy" missiles and blow his own ass off the face of the earth when it comes crashing back down on him.

[dunroaming]

29 minutes ago, patekatek said:

Let Kim put a nuke on the end of one of their "trustworthy" missiles and blow his own ass off the face of the earth when it comes crashing back down on him.

Good plan!  Of course it would kill thousands of his own people including the women and children and probably do the same for half of South Korea but hey! Who cares about them!

[55Jay]

17 minutes ago, dunroaming said:

Good plan!  Of course it would kill thousands of his own people including the women and children and probably do the same for half of South Korea but hey! Who cares about them!

Clearly not Kim Jong Un.  He also doesn't care about S. Koreans, Japanese and Americans.  He would like to vaporize them, and kill many more slowly over time.

Edited May 2, 2017 by 55Jay

[dunroaming]

7 hours ago, 55Jay said:

Clearly not Kim Jong Un.  He also doesn't care about S. Koreans, Japanese and Americans.  He would like to vaporize them, and kill many more slowly over time.

And if we don't care then we are no better than him

[Srikcir]

On 5/2/2017 at 5:56 AM, webfact said:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday opened the door to meeting North Korea's Kim Jong Un, saying he would be honoured to meet the young leader

As we've seen with Putin, all Kim has to do to get this meeting is say something nice about Trump to get Trump's attention.

 

When Putin complimented Trump by calling Trump a great leader, Trump replied, " It’s always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his country and beyond..." In another remark Trump said of Putin, "He called me a genius."  http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/sep/08/donald-trump/did-vladimir-putin-call-trump-brilliant/

 

If Kim were to say of Trump something like "He is a masterful leader," he'd probably have a meeting with Trump within a week. Hopefully, Kim's ego is too great to give even an innuendo of praise or compliment towards Trump.

 

[55Jay]

12 hours ago, dunroaming said:

And if we don't care then we are no better than him

That's a silly comparison.  If "we" didn't care, would have done something already.  Ironically, the time to act was quite some time ago so "we've" waited too long.   Now he's not just a garden variety nutter, he's a nutter with nukes.  Lovely. 

[Berkshire]

On 5/2/2017 at 1:22 PM, mesquite said:

Finally we have a president who has some balls.  Obama didn't do jack with the North Korean situation.  Trump has inherited a mess.

We weren't on the verge of nuclear war when Obama was President.  If that's what you call having some balls, I'd prefer Trump have a little less.  But then, he hasn't done anything yet....well, except get us closer to nuclear war.