WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Friday the U. S. push to isolate North Korea compelled the reclusive nation to reach out for presidential-level…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Friday the U. S. push to isolate North Korea compelled the reclusive nation to reach out for presidential-level talks, validating the Trump administration’s hard-line strategy of economic penalties and bellicose barbs.
No time and place has yet been set for what would be a historic meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. No sitting U. S. president has ever met with a North Korean leader.
South Korean officials, briefing Trump at the White House on Thursday about their recent meeting with Kim in Pyongyang, relayed that the North Korean leader expressed a commitment to denuclearization, a top demand of Trump and U. S. allies.
Kim also pledged to halt nuclear and missile testing, after conducting a string of such tests during Trump’s first year in office, the South Koreans said, and expressed an eagerness to meet Trump. They said Trump agreed to meet Kim by May, and the White House later confirmed the president’s decision.
“North Korea’s desire to meet to discuss denuclearization – while suspending all ballistic missile and nuclear testing – is evidence that President Trump’s strategy to isolate the Kim regime is working,” Vice President Mike Pence, who has visited the region, said Friday in a written statement.
Pence said the North Koreans are coming to the table despite receiving “zero concessions” from the U. S., which has, with its allies, consistently increased the pressure on Kim through economic sanctions and other means.
“Our resolve is undeterred and our policy remains the same: all sanctions remain in place and the maximum pressure campaign will continue until North Korea takes concrete, permanent, and verifiable steps to end their nuclear program,” Pence said, echoing Trump.
White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said Trump had discussed his decision with a “handful” of lawmakers, but wouldn’t reveal names. Short said the administration was cautious about the meeting, but Congress was responding with “excitement and encouragement.”
“They feel like for a long time that relationships there have been headed in a dire direction,” Short told reporters at the White House on Friday. “We’re obviously cautious on this, but we do believe that the president had a sea change when he came into office in the way he was going to deal with North Korea.
“We hope this bears fruit, but we’re going to be cautious about it,” Short said.
A meeting between the leaders would have been an unthinkable suggestion just a few months ago, when the insults between them were at their peak.
