On Thursday, President Donald Trump attempted to reassure North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after North Korea threatened to pull out of the upcoming nuclear summit with the United States. During a press conference at the White House, Trump said that he is “willing to do a lot” to offer Kim “protections” if the North Korean leader agrees to surrender his nuclear weapons.
“He will get protections that are very strong,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with NATO’s secretary-general. “The best thing he could do is make a deal.”
Trump’s remarks show that he is committed to resolving the North Korean issue.
According to The Hill, nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang is the president’s top foreign policy priority.
Trump also said that preparations for the meeting are moving ahead “as if nothing happened,” adding the U.S. has not heard official word from the North Koreans about any intention to pull out.
“Our people are literally dealing with them right now in terms of making arrangements, so that’s a lot different than what you read, but oftentimes what you read, if it’s not fake news, is true,” he said.
North Korea scared Washington when it said it may not show up at the June 12 summit if the U.S. continues to demand “unilateral” nuclear disarmament. Kim doesn’t want to give up all his nukes because he believes his arsenal is critical to his ability to maintain power.
Meanwhile, North Korean officials criticized national security adviser John Bolton this week for saying that the U.S. is seeking a “Libya model” with North Korea. Trump said that the agreement he is seeking with North Korea is not like the one the Bush administration made with Gadhafi in 2003.
Under the Libyan deal, Gadhafi surrendered his nuclear and chemical weapons stockpiles in exchange for sanctions relief.
“The Libyan model isn’t a model that we have at all when we are thinking of North Korea,” Trump said. “In Libya, we decimated that country. That country was decimated. There was no deal to keep Gadhafi. The Libyan model that was mentioned was a much different deal.”
Trump also said that nuclear-related sanctions would remain in full effect if North Korea pulls out of the talk. However, he added that a deal would allow Kim to continue “running his country” and allow it to become “very rich.”
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