The United States says it will not impose more conditions on North Korea before a summit of the two nations’ leaders.
The United States says it will not impose more conditions on North Korea before a summit of the two nations’ leaders, beyond the North’s promise not to resume nuclear and missile tests or publicly criticize U. S.-South Korean military exercises.
But the uncertainty still lingers over plans for the first-ever meeting of a serving U. S. president and a North Korean leader.
Four days after the surprise announcement that President Trump has agreed to meet the North’s Kim Jong Un by May, Washington has yet to hear directly from Pyongyang on the invitation extended by Kim via South Korean intermediaries.
“It’s very early stages,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Monday in Abuja, Nigeria, on a swing through Africa, when asked about plans for the meeting, expected in May. “We’ve not heard anything directly back from North Korea, although we expect to hear something directly from them.”
He said that no venue for the meeting had been agreed upon.
“I think it’s going to be very important that those conversations are held quietly” between Washington and Pyongyang, Tillerson said.
A summit between two nations that have remained in a state of war since the Korean War would be a remarkable turnabout after a year of heightened tensions.
Kim has pushed his isolated nation closer to having a nuclear-tipped missile that can strike the U. S.
