President Donald Trump insisted Monday that Kim Jong-un would follow through on a pledge to denuclearize in spite of North Korea’s complaints that the U.S. secretary of state acted like a ‘gangster’ during a trip last week to Pyongyang.
Trump said he expects Kim to stand by a loose accord they signed nearly a month ago in Singapore that committed North Korea to taking steps to denuclearize. And he pinpointed China as the potential disrupter in he and Kim’s newly-formed relationship.
‘I have confidence that Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake,’ he tweeted. ‘We agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea. China, on the other hand, may be exerting negative pressure on a deal because of our posture on Chinese Trade-Hope Not!’
President Donald Trump insisted Monday that Kim Jong-un would follow through on a pledge to denuclearize in spite of North Korea’s complaints that the U.S. secretary of state had acted like a ‘gangster’ during a trip last week to Pyongyang
Trump said he expects Kim to stand by a loose accord they signed nearly a month ago in Singapore that committed North Korea to taking steps to denuclearize. And he pinpointed China as the potential disrupter in he and Kim’s newly-formed relationship
Since Kim’s talk with Trump, the 33-year-old dictator has sat with his regime’s closest ally, fellow authoritarian and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meeting corresponds with foot-dragging from the North Korean dictator to follow through on a pledge to end his nuclear program.
North Korea has not tested rockets or missiles for months amid talks with the U.S. that would ultimately lead to economic relief if a formal pact is made and kept.
But it said after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s most recent visit that it was discouraged by a return to conversations on what it described as ‘worrisome’ on ‘cancerous’ issues related to complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.
Pompeo had a radically different interpretation of the outcome of the Pyongyang talks, where he was denied an audience with Kim.
He claimed in Tokyo that ‘substantive’ talks had taken place and that the reference to a gangster-like ‘attitude’ in North Korean press was a ‘stray’ comment.
‘If I paid attention to what the press said, I’d go nuts,’ he said. ‘I am determined to achieve the commitment that President Trump made, and I’m counting on chairman Kim to be determined to follow through on the commitment that he made.’
Media traveling with Pompeo did not pan the trip favorably.
But it was state-run agency KCNA that said the regime was chagrined about Pompeo’s allegedly bullying.
‘We expected the US to bring constructive measures to build confidence in accordance with the spirit of the US-NK Summit,’ KCNA reported.
Pompeo defended his stance, saying the U.S. position on disarmament is shared by the United Nations Security Council.
President Trump said last week as Pompeo made his way to Pyongyang that he had a ‘very good feeling’ about Kim from the moment that they met, bringing up his handshake they shared at the top of their summit.
‘I had a very good feeling about him from the standpoint – I shook his hand,’ he told reporters traveling with him Thursday on Air Force One. ‘I think we understand each other. I really believe that he sees a different future for North Korea.’
Trump pointed out in the remarks that Kim had not tested missiles or rockets for eight months – and claimed that his predecessor, Barack Obama, nearly went to war with North Korea.
‘You can ask President Obama, he was very close to going to war and he would have lost 50 million people,’ he claimed. ‘The rhetoric was very strong.’
Should Kim make an about-face, Trump warned, ‘We’ll go back to the other way.’
He was seemingly referring to his maximum pressure campaign and hurling of insults at Kim, whom he referred to in a U.N. speech as ‘rocket man.’
The president was demure when asked about a report that Kim is looking to deceive the U.S. about the size of its nuclear stockpile, however.
‘We’ll see. We’ll see,’ he said. ‘All I can tell you is this. You haven’t had one missile launch and you haven’t had one rocket launch.’
Trump spoke to reporters en route to a political rally in Montana.
Pompeo was traveling to North Korea at the same time in search of a firm agreement with Pyongyang to completely and verifiably denuclearize and end its ballistic missile production.
Kim’s government has taken no major steps since a summit in Singapore last month to fulfill a pledge to disarm.
Instead, satellite imagery has shown the rogue nation expanding a ballistic missiles site. A Washington Post report, citing U.S. intelligence officials, also claimed an effort was underway by Pyongyang to conceal its nuclear sites and and some of its warheads from the United States.
President Trump had slapped down the Post report as nonsense on Tuesday, based on its anonymous sourcing. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders declined on Monday to comment on sensitive information that comes from U.S. intelligence reports.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went to North Korea last week in search of a firm agreement with Pyongyang to completely and verifiably denuclearize and end its ballistic missiles production
Pompeo is seen boarding his plane at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on July 5
Pompeo made his third trip to North Korea this week to discuss denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula directly with Kim.
Sanders announced at the news conference that Pompeo would make a third trip to North Korea to discuss denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in talks that the Trump administration suggested would be with North Korea’s chairman.
‘There’s great momentum right now for positive change, and we’re moving together for further negotiations,’ Sanders said Monday of Pompeo’s trip and an assessment by a senior national security aide that North Korea could denuke in a year if Kim wanted to.
Sanders at the Monday news conference that ‘conversations are continuing to evolve’ between Washington and Pyongyang and ‘progress continues to be made.’
The administration is resting its case on North Korea’s halted nuclear tests and ballistic missile demonstrations. It has been eight months since North Korea has antagonized its neighbors and the U.S. with a missile launch.
‘Many good conversations with North Korea-it is going well! In the meantime, no Rocket Launches or Nuclear Testing in 8 months,’ President Trump on Tuesday morning tweeted. ‘All of Asia is thrilled. Only the Opposition Party, which includes the Fake News, is complaining. If not for me, we would now be at War with North Korea!’
Later in the day, Trump ripped the Post as a ‘disgrace’ to journalism for using unnamed intelligence officials in its report on North Korea’s efforts to deceive the United States about its nuclear stockpile and capabilities.
He claimed the Post’s sources do not exist and they are hiding behind anonymity ‘because there is no one to give them the kind of negative quote that they are looking for.’
But neither he nor his spokeswoman said that the underlying reporting was false.
An NBC report a day prior had also claimed that intelligence analysts at the CIA and elsewhere in the U.S. government believe that Kim will try to hide his production facilities and capabilities in order to exact as many concessions from the U.S. as possible in negotiations.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert refused to discuss U.S. intelligence at a Foggy Bottom news conference on Tuesday.
However, she said, ‘We’re all keeping a close eye – the U.S. Government keeping a close eye on North Korea, and the Secretary has been very clear and very blunt with the North Koreans about what he expects, and I’ll leave it at that.’
Nauert recalled that a year ago on Independence Day she had to cut short her holiday because of a North Korean ICBM launch.
‘So if we look back to where we were one year ago, we’re in a good position today and I think that’s what the President was simply referring to,’ she said of Trump’s tweet that morning giving himself a back-pat for preventing nuclear war.
Nauert said: ‘A lot of people were in panic. A lot of people around the world were very concerned about what would happen between the United States and North Korea. And the fact that our Secretary is now getting ready to go and have his fourth meeting with the North Koreans in less than three months I think is a testament to just how far we’ve come.’
Pompeo’s trip dovetailed another report that was making waves on Monday that said President Trump’s next summit with Kim could take place in New York at the annual gathering of the United Nations.
A report in Axios said the Trump administration is considering a second sit down with Kim in New York while the international body holds its general assembly.
For Trump to meet with Kim in New York on the sidelines of the September event, however, the president would have to see serious movement in the direction of denucleraization, the news outlet reported.
Sanders told reporters during her news conference later in the day, ‘We don’t have any announcements or plans to roll out at this point.’
She would not say whether the president has decided that he can trust the 33-year-old authoritarian leader who ordered the murder of his uncle and bother to consolidate power.
‘Again, we see progress and momentum in the process, and we’ve had good conversations as recently as yesterday. And we’re going to continue those conversations later this week, and push forward,’ she said, referring to the Pompeo trip.
Pompeo is seen here during his second trip to Pyongyang in May. His first visit to North Korea as CIA director was held in secret
North Korea has a permanent mission in New York City, which served as the location last month for a meeting between America’s chief diplomat and Kim’s second in command.
Trump then hosted a North Korean delegation at the White House for talks, after which he said he would move forward with a planned summit that was on the books but he had cancelled.
The president at the time said it was likely to take several in-person conversations with Kim for the U.S. to get a nuclear agreement. He acknowledged at a press conference that he could even host Kim at the White House.
‘Certainly if it goes well, and I think it would be well received, I think he would look at it very favorably, so I think that could happen,’ he said.
His admission came amid reports that he could treat Kim to a golf weekend at Mar-a-Lago.
‘Maybe we’ll start with the White House. What do you think?’ the president instead said.
Trump’s summit with Kim in Singapore had the U.S. president declaring that he and the dictator had developed a great relationship that would soon bear the fruits of his labor.
A joint communique that Trump and Kim signed said that North Korea would completely denuclearize without offering a timeline or any or logistical information.
In an interview with Fox Business that aired last weekend, Trump remained optimistic.
‘This has been going on for many years,’ he said. ‘I think they’re very serious about it. I think they want to do it. We have a very good chemistry.’
No sooner than the ink had dried on the joint communique, Trump was touting the statement as a major accomplishment.
He claimed in repeated interviews that Kim was likely to denuclearize as soon as he returned to Pyongyang.
Kim has taken no visible steps, however, to fulfill the terms of the agreement in the the three weeks since they met. The site 38North, which keeps tabs on North Korea’s nuclear activities, says that no apparent steps to stop conducing research had been made.
A day after returning from the trip to Singapore Trump also bragged that he established a direct hotline to Kim. It’s unclear from the president’s statements whether either of the men have used it.
Trump has in the past said it would inappropriate for him to comment on his conversations with Kim.
With the installation of Pompeo at State, much of the interfacing with North Korea is being carried out by the country’s chief diplomat.
Pompeo has made multiple trips to countries in the region meet with U.S. allies invested in the issue in the days since the Singapore summit, in addition to the trip to Asia that he is currently on.
The former CIA chief in an interview lasta month with CNN said that the U.S. still does not have a timeline for denuclearization and he does not want to rush it.
Trump’s summit with Kim in Singapore had the U.S. president declaring that he and the dictator had developed a great relationship that would soon bear the fruits of his labor
‘Whether that’s two months, six months, we are committed to moving forward in an expeditious moment to see if we can achieve what both leaders set out to do,’ Pomepo, who is now the secretary of state, said.
John Bolton, the national security adviser to the president, meanwhile said on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ that the U.S. was prepared to move ‘very quickly’ to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program, if the regime plans wants to move ahead.
‘If they have the strategic decision already made to do that and they’re cooperative, we can move very quickly,’ Bolton claimed. ‘Physically we would be able to dismantle the overwhelming bulk of their programs within a year.’
Trump’s spokeswoman, Sanders, said last Monday in response, ‘And as far as the one-year timeline, Ambassador Bolton said if North Korea makes the decision to denuclearize, their ballistics programs could be dismantled in a year.’
While there is ‘great momentum’ for a formal accord, she said, ‘beyond that, I don’t have anything for you.’