President Donald Trump says that South Korea will be making a major announcement at 7pm EDT on North Korea.
Trump popped into the White House press briefing room on Thursday evening at close of business and told a small contingent of reporters who just happened to be present that an announcement was coming this evening.
The U.S. president gave no indication of what would be announced but suggested with his surprise appearance that the news would be positive.
Trump popped into the White House press briefing room on Thursday evening and told a small contingent of reporters who just happened to be present that an announcement was coming this evening
Chung Eui-yong, the top South Korean national security official, was seen at the White House on Thursday, Yonhap news reported.
The South Korean new agency said that Chung, who is fresh off a trip to North Korea, was at the White House meeting with U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was traveling abroad in Ethiopia on Thursday.
Trump on Tuesday said that a ‘very good dialogue’ had opened up with North Korea as he cautiously approached Pyongyang’s offer to freeze its nuclear tests while it holds talks with the United States.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the conversations had yielded progress, striking an optimistic tone.
‘We’re gonna see. We’re gonna see,’ he told a journalist asking about North Korea’s commitment to ending its nuclear weapons program if it no longer felt threatened. ‘They seem to be acting positively, but we’re gonna see.’
The U.S. president said he wants to take the ‘proper’ pathway, which he suggested was diplomatic talks, ‘But we are prepared to go either way.’
‘And as I said, hopefully we’ll go in the very, very peaceful, beautiful path. We’re prepared to go whichever path is necessary,’ he added. ‘I think we’re having very good dialogue, and you’re gonna certainly find out very soon what’s happening, but we have, we have made progress, there’s no question about it.’
President Donald Trump cautiously approached North Korea’s offer to freeze its nuclear program while it holds a ‘candid dialogue’ with the United States on Tuesday
First, Trump sent out a tweet on Tuesday morning that said, ‘We will see what happens!’
Then he said that talks were ‘possible’ — but they could also be a ‘false hope’ — and the ‘U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction’
This morning Trump warned North Korean despot Kim Jong-un, ‘The U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction!’
The U.S. president said then ‘possible progress’ toward talks had been made, but it could also be a ‘false hope.’
On Saturday evening, Trump said that the North Koreans had reached out and his administration would be meeting with Kim’s government.
‘They, by the way, called up a couple of days ago and said, “We would like to talk.” And I said, “So would we, but you have to de-nuke, you have to de-nuke.” So, let’s see what happens,’ the president stated. ‘But we will be meeting and we’ll see if anything positive happens.’
South Korean news agency Yonhap said Monday that Trump was actually referring to a March 1 call with its president, Moon Jae-in, however, citing an official with the White House’s National Security Council.
An NSC spokesman did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for clarification, and a senior official would not tell reporters during a call on Tuesday afternoon if talks were already under way.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven offered Tuesday during a joint press conference with Trump at the White House to mediate talks with the North Koreans, if that is what Trump wants.
His country maintains an emasssy in Pyongyang and serves at the United States’ protectorate there.
Löfven said it’s not up to Sweden to solve the dispute, however, he believes that the North Koreans trust his nation to act as arbiter.
‘If the president decides, the key actors decide, if they want us to help out,’ he said, ‘we’ll be there.’
A week ago, Trump signaled his openness to a conversation — if it took place ‘under the right conditions.’
‘Otherwise, we’re not talking,’ Trump told United States governors.
He commented that Kim ‘wants to talk, as of last night’ and said ‘we want to talk also.’
Trump went on to make a familiar complaint about his predecessors, blasting former President Bill Clinton and others for failing to keep North Korea in check.
‘The Clinton administration spent billions and billions of dollars. They gave them billions. They built things for them. They went out of their way, and the day after the agreement was signed, they continued with nuclear research. It was horrible.
Big step: Kim Jong Un,pictured meeting South Korean National Security Director Chung Eui-yong, in Pyongyang, has said he is ready to discuss de-nuclearization with the U.S.
Continuing, Trump said, ‘The Bush administration did nothing — both. The Obama administration wanted to do something. He told me it’s the single biggest problem that this country has. But they didn’t do anything.
‘And it would have been much easier, in those days, than it is now. I think most people understand that. But we’ve been very tough with them.’
Trump’s administration has led an international charge to cripple North Korea’s economy and bring Kim to his knees. The advance will not cease, the U.S. has said, until the rogue dictator abandons his nuclear ambitions.
At his White House news conference on Tuesday, Trump said he believes that the North Koreans are sincere in their offer to halt nuclear and missile tests if the United States sits down for talks.
‘But I think they’re sincere also because the sanctions,’ he assessed. ‘The sanctions have been very, very strong and very biting. And we don’t want that to happen. So I really believe they are sincere. I hope they’re sincere. We’re going to soon find out.’
Last month’s Winter Olympics, held this year in Pyeongchang, provided a long-awaited opening for the kind of detente that could lead to substantive talks.
The two Koreas marched under one flag at the opening ceremony of the games, and Kim sent his sister, Kim Yo Jong, to the South to head the North’s delegation.
A South Korean envoy lead by national security director Chung Eui-yong returned Tuesday to Seoul from a meeting with Kim in Pyongchang where the North Koreans are said to have offered to halt its nuclear tests for the time being if the United States agrees to talks.
Televisions being sold at an Onoden Co. electronics store display a broadcast of a news report on North Korea’s Nov. 29 missile launch, showing footage captioned as the launch of the Hwasong-12 missile in September, in Tokyo, Japan
North Korea also expressed its willingness during the two-day summit put a total moratorium on its nuclear program if the South backs off from military behavior it perceives to be a threat.
Chung said said that Kim promised not to use nuclear or conventional weapons against South Korea in the conversation where the two countries also agreed to open a hotline between their leaders ‘to ease military tension and have close coordination’ and meet for another round of talks in April.
The next summit is expected to take place in Panmunjom. It will be only the third inter-Korean set of talks ever held and the first in more than a decade.
The last time the rival countries held high-level talks was in 2007, when the North was under Kim’s father’s command. A summit in 2000 also took place while Kim Jong Il controlled the North. The elder Kim passed away in 2011, giving rise to Kim Jong-un’s reign.
Special guests: Kim Jong Un sits next to his wife Ri Sol-Ju, with his sister Kim Yo-Jong sat to the right of one of the South Korean diplomats during a meal hosted by North Korea
Promises: Kim Jong Un, pictured during a meeting with members of South Korean delegation yesterday, said there would be no need for North Korea to keep its nuclear weapons arsenal ‘if military threats against the country are resolved’
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets members of the special delegation of South Korea’s President in this photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency
Chung said Tuesday that the younger Kim, 34, said he wants to ‘write a new history of national reunification’ during a four-hour dinner this week in Pyongchang.
As the Olympics unfolded in South Korea, the United States loudly warned the world that Kim was putting on a charm offensive.
Vice President Mike Pence, who led the U.S. delegation to the opening ceremony, urged the international community, and South Korea, not let up on the North until Kim fully capitulates when it comes to his building of nuclear weapons.
‘The policy of the U.S. is the denuclearization of North Korea. The maximum pressure campaign is going to continue and intensify. All options are on the table,’ a senior official said of Pence’s message to Moon as he departed the peninsula.
Pence announced during the trip, and the United States followed up with, a rigorous set of sanctions that the Trump administration described as the largest and most aggressive to date.
Treasury blacklisted one person, 27 companies and 28 ships with the action it says was ‘aimed at shutting down North Korea’s illicit maritime smuggling activities to obtain oil and sell coal.’ The sanctions hit entities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Singapore among others.
Steve Mnuchin, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, said that nearly all of North Korea’s shipping sector had now been targeted. The total number of sanctions steps since 2005 has now hit 45 – with almost half of the actions coming since Trump took office.
At a press conference later in the day, Trump said he’d make preparations for ‘phase two’ if the punishing actions are not successful, the outcome of which could be ‘very, very unfortunate for the world.’
‘But hopefully the sanctions will work,’ he said during remarks at a joint White House press conference with the Australian prime minister.
The North Korean dictator shakes hands with South Korea’s national security director Chung Eui-yong as his sister looks on
No insight: Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government
Envoys for South Korea led by President Moon’s national security director, Chung Eui-yong, are on a rare two-day visit to Pyongyang that’s expected to focus on how to ease a standoff over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and restart talks between Pyongyang and Washington
A senior administration official told reporters, ‘The president is clearly frustrated and rightly so over the efforts that have failed in the past and also over the uptick in testing and the advances we’ve seen in the North Korean program.’
In his Tuesday morning tweets on North Korea, Trump said, ‘Possible progress being made in talks with North Korea. For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned.
‘The World is watching and waiting!’ he added. ‘May be false hope, but the U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction!’
His comment suggested that military action against North Korea is still in his back pocket, despite the thaw in tensions.
President Trump said Saturday evening during a roast at a dinner in Washington that’s held off camera he ‘won’t rule out direct talks’ with Kim.
‘As far as the risk of dealing with a madman is concerned, that’s his problem, not mine,’ he joked.
Trump went on to say that Kim ‘must be a fine man’ and that his hardline against North Korea saved the Winter Olympics.
‘Without President Trump and his strong attitude they would have never called up and said, “Hey, we’d love to be in the Olympics together,” ‘ he recalled South Korea’s Moon as saying. ‘It was heading for disaster and now we’re talking.’
Diving off script in the 35-minute speech that was supposed to stay light and last approximately 10 minutes, Trump said, ‘Maybe positive things are happening. I hope that’s true, and I say that in all seriousness.
‘But we will be meeting, and we’ll see if anything positive happens. It’s been a long time,’ he said. ‘It’s a problem that should have been fixed a long time ago.’