President Trump arrived at the United Nations on Monday striking a far less ominous tone than a year ago, announcing he likely will hold a second summit with Kim Jong Un \u201cquite soon.\u201d<\/b>
\nUNITED NATIONS \u2014 Confronting the dangers of North Korea\u2019s nuclear threat, President Donald Trump arrived at the United Nations on Monday striking a far less ominous tone than a year ago, announcing he likely will hold a second summit with Kim Jong Un \u2018\u2018quite soon.\u2019\u2019
Twelve months after Trump stood at the rostrum of the U. N. General Assembly and derided Kim as \u2018\u2018Rocket Man,\u2019\u2019 the push to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula is a work in progress, although fears of war have given way to dreams of rapprochement. The president\u2019s bellicose denunciations of Pyongyang have largely given way to hopeful notes.
\u2018\u2018It was a different world,\u2019\u2019 Trump said Monday of his one-time moniker for the North Korean leader. \u2018\u2018That was a dangerous time. This is one year later, a much different time.\u2019\u2019
He added that preparations are underway by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for a second presidential meeting with Kim \u2018\u2018quite soon.\u2019\u2019
The meeting would come despite U. S. officials assessing that the North has not followed through on its commitments to take steps toward denuclearization. Pompeo defended Trump\u2019s decision to seek another meeting despite the slow progress.
\u2018\u2018We\u2019ve been at this the other way an awfully long time and failed,\u2019\u2019 he said.
He added: \u2018\u2018We tried to do details. We tried to do step for step. We tried to do trade for trade. Each of those failed.\u2019\u2019
Pompeo said, \u2018\u2018We\u2019re bringing the two senior leaders, the individuals who can actually make the decisions that will move this process forward,\u2019\u2019 in hopes they can make a breakthrough.
Trump arrived at the U. N. on Monday morning for a meeting on the global drug trade, ahead of a sit-down with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who comes bearing a personal message to Trump from Kim after their inter-Korean talks last week.
Trump and Moon are expected to sign a new version of the U. S.-South Korean trade agreement, one of Trump\u2019s first successes in his effort to renegotiate trade deals on more favorable terms for the U. S. Even so, some U. S. officials worry that South Korea\u2019s eagerness to restore relations with the North could reduce sanctions pressure on Kim\u2019s government, hampering efforts to negotiate a nuclear accord.
The nuclear threat was on the agenda at Trump\u2019s first meeting in New York, a dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Manhattan on Sunday night. Abe stands first among world leaders in cultivating a close relationship with the president through displays of flattery that he has used to advance his efforts to influence the unpredictable American leader.
\u2018\u2018We have our eyes wide open,\u2019\u2019 Pompeo told NBC\u2019s \u2018\u2018Meet the Press\u2019\u2019 on Sunday. \u2018\u2018There is a long ways to go to get Chairman Kim to live up to the commitment that he made to President Trump and, indeed, to the demands of the world in the U. N. Security Council resolutions to get him to fully denuclearize.\u2019\u2019
Trump, redoubling his commitment to \u2018\u2018America First\u2019\u2019 on the most global of stages, will stress his dedication to the primacy of U. S. interests while competing with Western allies for an advantage on trade and shining a spotlight on the threat that he says Iran poses to the Middle East and beyond.
Scores of world leaders, even those representing America\u2019s closest friends, remain wary of Trump. In the 12 months since his last visit to the U. N., the Republican president has jolted the global status quo by pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, starting trade conflicts with China and the West and embracing Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin even as the investigation into the U. S. president\u2019s ties to Moscow moves closer to the Oval Office.
Long critical of the United Nations, Trump delivered a warning shot ahead of his arrival by declaring that the world body had \u2018\u2018not lived up to\u2019\u2019 its potential.
\u2018\u2018It\u2019s always been surprising to me that more things aren\u2019t resolved,\u2019\u2019 Trump said in a weekend video message, \u2018\u2018because you have all of these countries getting together in one location but it doesn\u2019t seem to get there. I think it will.\u2019\u2019
Nikki Haley, the U. S. ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in a preview of Trump\u2019s visit that the president\u2019s focus \u2018\u2018will be very much on the United States,\u2019\u2019 its role and the relations it wants to build.
\u2018\u2018He is looking forward to talking about foreign policy successes the United States has had over the past year and where we\u2019re going to go from here,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u2018\u2018He wants to talk about protecting U. S. sovereignty,\u2019\u2019 while building relationships with nations that \u2018\u2018share those values.\u2019\u2019
In his four-day visit to New York, Trump will deliver major speeches and meet with representatives of a world order that he has so often upended in the past year. On Monday he participated in a Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem and later was to meet with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and French President Emmanuel Macron, in addition to Moon.
Trump\u2019s address to the General Assembly comes Tuesday, and on Wednesday he will for the first time chair the Security Council, with the stated topic of non-proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The subject initially was to have been Iran, but that could have allowed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to attend, creating a potentially awkward situation for the U. S. leader.
Aides say the president will also use the session to discuss North Korea and other proliferation issues. While Trump is not seeking a meeting with Rouhani, he is open to talking with the Iranian leader if Rouhani requests one, administration officials said.
In meetings with European leaders as well as during the Security Council session, Trump plans to try to make the case that global companies are cutting ties with Iran ahead of the reimposition in five weeks of tough sanctions against Tehran. The penalties are a result of Trump\u2019s decision to withdraw the U. S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Trump at the time cited Iran\u2019s role as a malign force in the region, particularly its support of terrorist groups, but also its involvement in Syria. U. S. officials say their priority for the region now is removing Iranian forces from Syria.
Trump is also expected to deliver a fresh warning to Syria\u2019s Bashar al-Assad that the use of chemical weapons against civilians in the major rebel stronghold of Idlib would have serious repercussions.
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Follow Lemire on Twitter at http:\/\/twitter.com\/@JonLemire and Miller at http:\/\/twitter.com\/@zekejmiller<\/p>\n