A day after the stunning announcement that President Donald Trump has agreed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the United States appeared to be putting out mixed messages on Friday on the likelihood of the historic meeting taking place.
Doubts came to be sowed with White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders telling reporters repeatedly that a meeting will be held only after Pyongyang takes “concrete and verifiable actions” on denuclearization. “We’re not going to have this meeting take place until we see concrete actions that match the words and the rhetoric of North Korea,” Sanders said.
But, hours later on Friday night, Trump himself tweeted to say that a deal with Pyongyang is “very much in the making”. Without setting any similar precondition, Trump noted: “The deal with North Korea is very much in the making and will be, if completed, a very good one for the World. Time and place to be determined.”
One aspect on which everyone appeared to be on the same page in the Trump administration, from the President downwards, was that the US will continue with its rigorous sanctions-driven “maximum pressure” campaign on Pyongyang till the time an agreement is reached.
US media reports said that Trump made the decision to meet Kim without consulting key figures in his administration, but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, away on an official trip to Africa, said Trump’s decision was not such a big surprise as was being made out. “This is something that he’s had on his mind for quite some time, so it was not a surprise in any way,” Tillerson said in Djibouti, adding: “I spoke to him very early this (Friday) morning about that decision and we had a very good conversation.”
At the White House media briefing, Sanders, fielding a barrage of questions on the meeting, said that a result of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure campaign”, North Korea has made promises to denuclearize, and to stop nuclear and missile testing.
Asked if Kim can be trusted as a negotiating partner, Sanders commented, “look, we’re not in the negotiation right now. We’ve accepted the invitation to talk, based on them following through with concrete actions on the promises that they’ve made.”
As to why Trump accepted the invitation without setting any preconditions, Sanders said, “let’s be very clear: The United States has made zero concessions. But North Korea has made some promises. And, again, this meeting won’t
take place without concrete actions that match the promises that have been made by North Korea.”
Asked if Trump was not giving Kim exactly what he wants in terms of respect on the international stage, Sanders shot back, “Not at all. I think that the President is getting exactly what he wants. He is getting the opportunity to have the North Koreans actually denuclearise.”
Pointing out that “nothing is changing from the United States' position”, the spokesperson said Washington will continue with the maximum pressure campaign by working with its allies and partners. “If we can get to a place where North Korea is denuclearising, that is a massive step and it’s something that will make the entire globe much safer.”
While the projected Trump-Kim meeting will be the first time that a US president is slated to sit down with a North Korean ruler, active negotiations over denuclearising the Korean Peninsula were held by the Bill Clinton administration and the George W Bush administration but, after recording considerable progress, the efforts collapsed on both occasions.