Trump plans phased negotiations with Kim

New York, June 2: US President Donald Trump is proposing phased negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, starting with the planned June 12 summit in Singapore during which he does not expect a complete deal on denuclearisation. At the same time, Trump has also set an ambitious goal for his interactions with Kim aiming for an end to the official 70-year state of war between the US and North Korea. After a meeting Kim Yong-chol, the North Korean leader’s emissary, in Washington on Friday, Trump confirmed that the Singapore summit he had canceled last week was back on track. “I think we’re going to have a relationship, and it will start on June 12th,” the President said.

Kim Yong-chol traveled to Washington after two days of negotiations with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York to hand over a letter from Kim Jong-un to Trump. Trump said that “it ended up being a two-hour conversation with the second most powerful man in North Korea” during which they discussed a whole range of subjects. As a goodwill gesture, Trump said that he will not be putting any more sanctions on North Korea, but the existing ones will continue. Pompeo, however, has asserted that the US won’t budge from the ultimate goal of denuclearising North Korea.

North Korea poses a major threat with the nuclear devices as well as missiles capable of reaching the US mainland that it has developed. After it tested them last year, the two leaders traded threats and abuses, while the US succeeded in tightening the UN sanctions on North Korea. Later this year they cooled down and agreed to talk. Trump said that if the nuclear issue is resolved, he expected South Korea, Japan and China to provide aid to North Korea, without any cost to the US for rebuilding it. (IANS)