President Donald Trump continued to defend his budding relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Monday, demanding credit for his role in making „initial steps toward a deal“ by establishing a personal rapport with the young dictator during last week’s summit in Singapore.
It’s a conviction South Korean officials share. South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-Nam said Monday in Washington that any diplomatic progress should be credited to the connection that Trump and Kim established through an „unprecedented top-down approach“ to negotiations.
„The actors for this top-level diplomacy are completely different leaders as compared to the past,“ Lim told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. „Moreover, the personal chemistry between them has been unique as well.“
Trump trying to butter-up Kim?
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, asked about Trump’s praise for Kim, suggested the President is as willing to use carrots as he would be — if necessary — to use sticks. „If you try to play Trump or back out, there’s going to be a war and nobody wants war,“ Graham told CNN.
Trump’s claims to a cozy relationship may reflect an effort to butter-up Kim „to make it easier to get a better deal,“ Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio told CNN last week.
Indeed, the administration hopes that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo can build on that rapport to create substantial movement toward denuclearization.
But sources have told CNN that there is nothing to suggest that North Korea has begun destroying its missile launch sites, despite Trump’s repeated claims to the contrary and his declaration last week that the country is no longer a nuclear threat.
Harry Harris, Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to South Korea, said last week that North Korea continues to be a nuclear threat and that major military exercises should be paused to give Kim a chance to prove whether he is „serious.“
Trump announced in Singapore that the US would suspend „war games“ with South Korea and Japan, taking Seoul, Tokyo, lawmakers and parts of the US military by surprise.
