WASHINGTON — Seeking to move forward with a planned high-profile summit, President Trump said Thursday that Kim Jong Un can count on “protections that…
WASHINGTON — Seeking to move forward with a planned high-profile summit, President Trump said Thursday that Kim Jong Un can count on “protections that will be very strong” if North Korea agrees to get rid of nuclear weapons — but also seemed to threaten regime change if it doesn’t.
The president appeared to be talking about a possible American pledge not to invade or otherwise try to topple Kim’s government, as happened in recent decades in Libya and Iraq. As for Kim, Trump said at one point, “he’d be there; he’d be in his country; he’d be running his country.”
Yet the president also during somewhat rambling comments that the Libya model “would take place if we don’t make a deal, most likely.”
Trump also told reporters that the North Koreans have not officially notified the White House about any problems that could scuttle the summit, even though Kim’s state media has threatened twice in recent days to cancel the event.
“Nothing has changed on North Korea that we know of,” Trump said during a photo opportunity with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “We have not been told anything… If the meeting happens, it happens.”
If it doesn’t, he added, “we go on to the next step.”
Trump didn’t specify what that next step would be, but in recent months he has pressured China and other countries to cut off money to North Korea unless and until it gives up nuclear weapons.
Less than a week after Trump announced he would meet Kim on June 12 in Singapore, the North Koreans threatened to cancel the plan over two complaints: Ongoing joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, and the Trump administration’s insistence that North Korea end its nuclear weapons programs without some kind of compensation.
