The president sought Moon Jae-in’s interpretation of North Korea’s shift to a harder-line position on denuclearization.
President Trump spoke late Saturday to South Korean President Moon Jae-in amid increasing concerns in the White House that North Korea is not serious about striking a deal on denuclearization, which has complicated planning for the upcoming Singapore summit.
On the call, which lasted less than 30 minutes, Trump sought Moon’s interpretation of Pyongyang’s shift to a harder-line position last week, a sharp contrast to the more positive and constructive tone after Moon met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un last month, according to a senior U. S. official with knowledge of the conversation.
North Korea’s actions in recent days, including its cancellation of a working-level meeting with South Korean officials and a threat to call off Kim’s summit with Trump on June 12, has alarmed the Trump administration and created new complications in the preparations, with just over three weeks left. An advance team from the United States is in Singapore to work out logistics, Trump administration officials said.
National security adviser John Bolton has been telling colleagues that he doesn’t trust that the summit will go well, and he has reiterated his long-standing belief that he does not trust the North Koreans, a different person familiar with his views said.
Aides emphasized that Trump remains committed to meeting with Kim and that planning is moving forward but that time is running out to nail down an agenda and finalize several outstanding issues. The senior U. S. official said Pyongyang appears to be trying to extract more concessions from the United States before the summit, or to be building a narrative to blame Trump if things go poorly in Singapore or to pull out of the summit entirely.
“People need to get real here after the euphoria of the peace summit” between Moon and Kim, said the U. S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The official said the North Koreans have already failed to abide by some of their commitments in the “Panmunjom agreement” that was signed at the inter-Korea summit.
“They’re hedging, creating a sub-narrative,” the U. S. official said. “They’re not backing out yet. Neither is the president. It doesn’t look like they want to denuclearize at all.”
The official added: “It’s true there’s more coordination that needs to be done that hasn’t been done.
