Donald Trump held a historic first summit with Kim in Singapore last June to try to persuade the reclusive North Korean strongman to give up the country’s nuclear weapons.<\/b>
\nUS President Donald Trump on January 31 said the details of his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be announced next week — and that a date and place had been settled.
\u00ab\u00a0We’re going to announce it very soon. We’ll be announcing early next week and they very much want the meeting,\u00a0\u00bb Trump told reporters in the White House. \u00ab\u00a0I think most of you know where the location is. I don’t think it’s a great secret,\u00a0\u00bb he added, touting what he called the \u00ab\u00a0tremendous progress\u00a0\u00bb made with Pyongyang.
Trump held a historic first summit with Kim in Singapore last June to try to persuade the reclusive North Korean strongman to give up the country’s nuclear weapons.
The American president has come under fire at home from critics who say that Kim has not taken enough concrete steps toward denuclearization to be given a second summit.
The US special representative on North Korea, Stephen Biegun, was to say in a speech Thursday that the United States remains \u00ab\u00a0clear-eyed\u00a0\u00bb and wants a firm accounting of Pyongyang’s weapons programs as part of any deal.
\u00ab\u00a0Before the process of denuclearization can be final, we must have a complete understanding of the full extent of the North Korean WMD and missile programs through a comprehensive declaration,\u00a0\u00bb Biegun was to say in a speech at Stanford University, according to excerpts.
\u00ab\u00a0We must reach agreement on expert access and monitoring mechanisms of key sites to international standards, and ultimately ensure the removal or destruction of stockpiles of fissile material, weapons, missiles, launchers and other weapons of mass destruction.\u00a0\u00bb If North Korea follows through, \u00ab\u00a0the United States, will, in return, exceed anything previously thought possible,\u00a0\u00bb Biegun was to say.
US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Tuesday that North Korea would resist pressure because its leaders see nuclear weapons capability as \u00ab\u00a0critical to regime survival.\u00a0\u00bb Trump on Thursday pushed back against intelligence leaders who publicly disagree with his foreign policy positions on North Korea, Iran and Syria.\u00a0\u00bbI disagree with certain things that they said, I think I’m right,\u00a0\u00bb he said. \u00ab\u00a0Time will prove me right probably.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n