Trump, KJU Summit Back On After North Korean Official Delivers Personal KJU Letter to White House
After a visit Friday from a top aide to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump announced Friday that the on-again, off-again summit between the United States and the Hermit Kingdom is back on schedule.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly ushered North Korean Gen. Kim Yong Chol into the White House’s West Wing, where Kim met with Trump in the Oval Office. He was the highest-ranking North Korean to visit the White House in 18 years, according to Time.
The general carried a personal letter from Kim, reportedly in a sealed envelope. While its contents had not been made public Friday afternoon, The Wall Street Journal reported it was believed to express the North Korean leader’s desire to meet with Trump.
“We’ll be meeting on June 12 in Singapore,” Trump said after meeting, Politico reported.
“I think it’s going to be very successful. They’re incredible people,” the president added.
"My letter was a response to their letter…I didn't cancel the meeting, I canceled it in response to a very tough statement. I think we're over that — totally over that," Pres. Trump says. In May 24 letter, Trump had written meeting "will not take place" https://t.co/he9uLA17dy pic.twitter.com/hYrWu1Mha3
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 1, 2018
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kim Yong Chol on Thursday in New York City.
Afterward, Pompeo told reporters the two had engaged in productive talks.
WATCH NOW: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses media after his talks with a top North Korean official, who is expected to deliver a letter to President Trump. https://t.co/CwWLIChir9 pic.twitter.com/11oHS4y5U1
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 31, 2018
“Through these series of meetings, I’m confident we’re moving in the right direction,” Pompeo said, according to Fox News.
“Our two countries face a pivotal moment in our relationship, and it would be nothing short of tragic to let this opportunity go to waste,” he added.
The secretary of state revealed that the Trump administration has teams in Singapore and at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea meeting with their North Korean counterparts.
They are working toward the now-back-on-again June 12 summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un.
Trump tweeted the meetings are “very good.”
Very good meetings with North Korea.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2018
Trump and Pompeo have both stated the administration’s goal is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
In a Twitter post Wednesday, Pompeo wrote that the U.S. wants to see “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
A Morning Consult/Politico poll released Thursday found 80 percent of respondents support the Trump administration’s efforts to get North Korea to suspend its nuclear weapons program.
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