Trump
would 'love' to meet Kim Jong Un again, but no word from North Korea
By Trevor
Hunnicutt and Josh Smith
October
28, 20259:12 AM GMT+1Updated 26 mins ago
Summary
Trump offers
to meet Kim for talks during South Korea visit
Kim open to
talks if U.S. drops denuclearization demands
South Korea
suggests Trump engage with Kim, predicts a Pyongyang response soon
Oct 28
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump made repeated invitations to meet North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un as he prepared to visit South Korea this week, with
officials in Seoul serving as his cheerleaders.
Publicly,
there has been radio silence from the North so far and American and South
Korean officials have said there are no concrete preparations underway. Ahead
of Trump's departure from the U.S., North Korea test fired what it said was a
new hypersonic ballistic missile.
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But Trump
has used his swing through Asia to underscore his willingness to meet North
Korea's dictator, hoping to revive the string of summits that the pair held
during the president's first term.
"I
just had a good relationship with him," Trump said on Monday. "I
would love to see him, if he wants to, if he even gets this message. We haven't
mentioned anything, but he knows I'm going over there. If he'd like to meet,
I'd love to meet him."
When
asked what he could use to bring Kim to the table, Trump said sanctions.
"That's
pretty big to start off with," he said. "I would say that's about as
big as you get.”
The pair
held summits in 2018 and 2019 before negotiations broke down over Pyongyang's
nuclear weapons arsenal. North Korea is under heavy international sanctions
over those weapons, as well as its ballistic missiles.
Last
month, Kim signalled an openness to meeting Trump if the U.S. dropped its
demands that he give up his nuclear arsenal, while rejecting any talks with
South Korea.
"Personally,
I still have fond memories of U.S. President Trump," he said in a speech,
according to the Korean Central News Agency, a state media outlet. "If the
United States drops the absurd obsession with denuclearising us and accepts reality,
and wants genuine peaceful coexistence, there is no reason for us not to sit
down with the United States."
There is
no sign, however, that talks will take place. A U.S. official said they
considered but never scheduled a visit to the Demilitarized Zone on the border
between South and North Korea.
South
Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who took office in June and has sought to ease
tensions with the North, has proposed that Trump use his visit to South Korea
to engage with Kim.
Unification
Minister Chung Dong-young, who handles relations with the North, said Pyongyang
was likely to issue a statement on Trump's offer to talk as soon as Tuesday or
Wednesday.
South
Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told parliament on Tuesday that Trump's
calling North Korea a "nuclear power" and the possibility of easing
sanctions could provide an incentive for Kim to come to the table.
"However,
compared to 2017 and 2018, North Korea has formed a military alliance with
Russia and strengthened its relationship with China," he said.
On
Monday, North Korea's foreign minister met with Russian President Vladimir
Putin.
Putin and
Kim sealed a strategic partnership treaty last year, which included a mutual
defence pact, and North Korea has sent soldiers, artillery, ammunition and
missiles to Russia to support Moscow's war in Ukraine.
On
Tuesday in Tokyo, Trump met with the families of Japanese nationals abducted by
North Korea decades ago.
Reporting
by Trevor Hunnicutt and Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee; Writing
by Josh Smith; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus
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