The announcement of a Trump-Kim summit caught the administration off guard, and officials are scrambling to roll out a policy framework
Donald Trump’s sudden acceptance of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has cast a cloud of uncertainty over Washington, with few details emerging over the terms of a potentially historic meeting that is fraught with risk.
On Saturday, Trump vaunted his own work on the meeting and issues around it with a tweet in which he did not spell the Chinese president’s name in the generally accepted fashion.
“Chinese president XI XINPING and I spoke at length about the meeting with KIM JONG UN of North Korea,” Trump wrote, referring to Xi Jinping. “President XI told me he appreciates that the US is working to solve the problem diplomatically rather than going with the ominous alternative. China continues to be helpful!”
Trump tweeted the message again, with the Chinese president’s name spelled according to custom. The original tweet was deleted.
Some critics have feared for the effect on Chinese relations of Trump’s tariffs on aluminium and steel, announced this week. The White House said on Saturday Trump had also discussed his meeting with Kim with French president Emmanuel Macron; Trump tweeted that he had done so with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who he said was “very enthusiastic”.
But after the surprise declaration on Thursday that Trump would meet Kim amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, the White House appeared to slowly walk back on the issue as officials scrambled to roll out a policy framework for the first ever meeting between leaders of the two countries.
On Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said any meeting would be conditional upon Pyongyang agreeing to unspecified demands.
“Let’s be very clear,” she told the daily press briefing. “The United States has made zero concessions but North Korea has made some promises. This meeting won’t take place without concrete actions that match the promises that have been made by North Korea.
