President Donald Trump’s rosy outlook at the prospect of meeting with North Korean despot Kim Jong Un is about to hit a wall of hard truths erected by US allies, outside experts and officials within his administration.
“For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility. Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity,” Trump tweeted. “Look forward to our meeting!”
Privately, Trump has made clear to advisers that he wants the meeting to happen, expressing few reservations about the prospects of a face-to-face meeting with Kim, a source familiar with the ongoing negotiations said. But in the coming weeks, US officials and at least one key US ally will look to dampen that optimism.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will come bearing a list of concerns over Trump’s face-to-face with Kim when he arrives in the US next month to meet with the President, a person familiar with the Japanese efforts said. The meeting — which could occur at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after he returns from a trip to South America — came at Abe’s insistence after learning that Trump had accepted an invitation to meet with Kim.
Meanwhile, some officials inside Trump’s administration have continued to privately cast doubts that a meeting with Kim will ever materialize, even as Trump himself has pressured his aides to make headway on organizing the historic encounter.
Just this month — days before Trump quickly accepted North Korea’s invitation to meet — senior administration officials told reporters the US would not hold direct talks until North Korea takes “concrete steps” toward denuclearization. That condition has since been discarded, but now those officials are working to ensure Trump does not walk into his meeting with Kim with unduly high expectations.
“I wouldn’t say optimism is called for right now. I would be very cautious because… what North Korea expects out of this summit and what the US expect may not be potentially aligned,” said Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst and North Korea expert. “Optimism is the last word I would use for this.”
US planning
The planning is being led by Mike Pompeo, the director of the CIA whom Trump has tapped to become secretary of state. That shakeup was announced on the heels of the diplomatic breakthrough, and senior administration officials attributed the change to Trump’s closer alignment with Pompeo on the issue. As the White House works to secure his confirmation, Pompeo and a team at the CIA have been working through intelligence back-channels to make preparations for the Kim talks.
Trump also announced last week he was shoving aside his national security adviser H. R. McMaster for John Bolton, the arch-hawk who has in the past advocated military action against North Korea. In appearances on Fox News, his former employer, Bolton has praised Trump’s willingness to meet Kim, even suggesting the summit be held as soon as the end of March. But he’s also warned against drawing out negotiations, and has suggested the Trump-Kim meeting be cut short if the President determines North Korea isn’t serious about denuclearization.
