Trump Sees ‘Substantial Chance’ of No Kim Summit

Date: 23 May 2018 - 20:18

News ID: ۵۳۲۸۶

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said there was a "substantial chance” his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would not take place as planned on June 12.
Trump raised doubts about the Singapore summit in talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who came to Washington to urge Trump not to miss a rare opportunity with North Korea.
If the summit is called off or fails, it would be a major blow to what Trump supporters hope will be the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency, and a huge disappointment for the president himself.
"There’s a very substantial chance ... it won’t work out. And that’s OK,” Trump told reporters. "That doesn’t mean it won’t work out over a period of time. But it may not work out for June 12. But there is a good chance that we’ll have the meeting.”
Trump’s Oval Office remarks were the strongest sign from him yet about the possibility of a delay or cancellation of what would be the first-ever summit between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea.
Aides said Trump has privately been wondering whether Kim is serious about the summit after the abrupt change in tone.
Moon’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, had told reporters en route to Washington he believed there was a "99.9% chance” the Trump-Kim summit would take place as scheduled.
Before seeing Trump, Moon met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton and urged them to speed preparations for the Trump-Kim summit.
Trump reiterated his suggestion that Kim’s recent meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping had influenced Kim to harden his stance ahead of the summit.
"President Xi is a world-class poker player,” Trump said.
Nevertheless, invited foreign journalists began a long journey up North Korea's east coast Wednesday to witness the slated destruction of the country’s nuclear test site.
In a surprise announcement Pyongyang said earlier this month that it planned to "completely" destroy the Punggye-ri facility in the country's northeast, a move welcomed by Washington and Seoul.
Punggye-ri has been the staging ground for all six of the North's nuclear tests, including its latest and by far most powerful one in September last year, which Pyongyang said was an H-bomb.
The demolition is due to take place sometime between Thursday and Friday, depending on the weather.
Last week Pyongyang threatened to pull out if Washington pressed for its unilateral nuclear disarmament.
As the date draws near, the differences between the two sides are coming into sharp relief.
Washington has made it clear it wants to see the "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization" of the North.
Pyongyang has vowed it will never give up its nuclear deterrence until it feels safe from what it terms U.S. aggression.