President Donald Trump stated on Tuesday that there was a “substantial chance” the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un won’t happen on June 12, because of concerns that Kim is not going to give up his nuclear weapons.
According to Reuters, Trump raised doubts about the Singapore summit during his meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who came to Washington to urge Trump not to let a rare opportunity to slip away. However, if the summit fails it will inflict a major political blow to Trump, whose supporters hope that this is going to be his proudest diplomatic achievement.
“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 said whether the meeting will be held as scheduled will be determined “pretty soon.”
“North Korea has a chance to be a great country and I think they should seize the opportunity,” he said.
Meanwhile, North Korea invited a number of media reporters from several countries to witness the dismantling of the Punggye-Ri testing site as part of Kim’s pledge to discontinue nuclear tests.
Although North Korea first declined to take the South Korea reporters after calling off planned inter-Korean talks in protest against U.S.-South Korean air combat drills, on late Tuesday it agreed to give them a visa to witness this important moment on the Korean peninsula.
The invitation to witness the dismantling of the Punggye-Ri site was seen as an indication that North Korea’s unexpected offer to end its nuclear tests still held despite renewed diplomatic uncertainty.
High-level intra-Korea talks are expected to resume after Friday, once the “Max Thunder” joint air combat exercises finish, Moon’s media secretary Yoon Young-chan has said.
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