Trump-Kim talks: US signals hardline stance as it scrambles to define position

Donald Trump will take a hardline position at his planned summit with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the White House said on Friday, as US officials scrambled to keep pace with the president after his sudden acceptance of Kim’s offer to talk.

In briefings after the surprise announcement of a summit – which would be the first ever meeting of leaders of the two countries – US officials made no mention of possible concessions that Trump might offer, other than saying that severe sanctions would stay in place until North Korea took verifiable steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme.

Vice-President Mike Pence said that Kim’s invitation to suspend nuclear tests and meet the US president proved that Trump’s strategy was working.

The North Koreans “are coming to the table despite the United States making zero concessions and, in close coordination with our allies, we have consistently increased the pressure on the Kim regime”, Pence said in a statement.

“Our resolve is undeterred and our policy remains the same: all sanctions remain in place and the maximum pressure campaign will continue until North Koreatakes concrete, permanent, and verifiable steps to end their nuclear program.”

Reacting to the announcement of the summit, the Chinese and Japanese governments have echoed the US line that there would be no let-up in the economic pressure on North Korea until Pyongyang began to dismantle its nuclear weapons and missiles programmes.

But Thursday’s announcement appeared to have taken some senior US officials unawares: the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, was travelling in Africa, and had told reporters – while the South Korean delegation was in the White House conveying the offer – that talks with the North were a distant prospect.

It remained unclear what Kim might want in return for meeting Trump. Pyongyang had not commented officially on the summit plans since they were revealed by a South Korean delegation on Thursday night.

A previous deal, the 1994 Agreed Framework, involved deliveries of fuel oil and the promise to build civilian nuclear reactors for North Korea. But Kim has consistently demanded an end to what Pyongyang calls Washington’s “hostile policies” which involve its military presence on and around the Korean peninsula and joint exercises with its ally, South Korea.

On Friday Tillerson told reporters during a tour of east Africa that the US had been taken aback at how “forward-leaning” Kim had been in the Monday meeting with the South Korean delegation, and described the outcome as a success for the US policy of severe sanctions executed by the state department.

He said Trump had made the decision himself after determining the time was right for “talks” but not formal negotiations.

North Korea talks: Where will Donald Trump meet Kim Jong-un?

 

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He said it will take “some weeks” to arrange the timing for their meeting. US officials said that no time or place had been agreed. Bilateral talks in the past have been conducted in Geneva, New York and Beijing, but those involved diplomats. Kim Jong-un has not ventured outside North Korea since inheriting power from his father in 2011.

A strong possibility as a venue would be the Demilitarised Zone between the two Koreas, a backdrop that would only add to the drama of an extraordinary encounter.

In the coming weeks, the Trump administration will have to develop a negotiating strategy almost from scratch. Former officials have said that while much time and effort had gone into designing and enforcing sanctions, and planning military options, almost none had been devoted to putting together a plan for negotiation.

The US special envoy for North Korean policy, Joseph Yun, left his post last week depriving the administration of the single diplomat who had been in contact with North Korea. He had been contemplating retirement for some time, one of his colleagues said, but would have stayed on if he felt the White House had been interested in his efforts. The state department has been cut out of the loop on several critical moments in the evolution of administration policy on North Korea.

Leadership on Korean policy has shifted to the White House. A likely key figure in the weeks running up to a summit is Allison Hooker, the only official left in the administration with firsthand experience of North Korea.

She travelled there in 2014 when she was director for Korean affairs at the national security council and accompanied the US intelligence chief, James Clapper, to Pyongyang to negotiate the release of American detainees.