A South Korea official announced outside the West Wing Thursday evening that Pyongyang has extended an invitation to President Trump to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“President Trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet Kim Jong Un by May to achieve permanent denuclearization,” South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-Yong told reporters.
Chung added that he told Trump that Kim said “he’s committed to denuclearization” and that “Kim pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests.”
Earlier Thursday, South Korean officials revealed that Kim had signaled he was open to discuss dismantling his nuclear weapons program, however, U.S. officials are skeptical of his intentions.
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Tagged: North Korea, nuclear weapons, Trump administration
- Discussion
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#BREAKING: Trump to meet with Kim Jong Un by May to "achieve permanent denuclearization" https://t.co/k1MxKQLGd1 pic.twitter.com/8vhxpsLJgx
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 9, 2018
Every POTUS since Truman has managed to contain Pyongyang while not treating that psychopathic regime as an equal. Until now. #WINNING
— John Schindler (@20committee) March 9, 2018
Can you IMAGINE if any Democratic POTUS even mildly suggested such an international travesty? cc @TheRickWilson https://t.co/W4E6MT0VNG
— John Schindler (@20committee) March 9, 2018
The Norks are extending bait: treat us like a peer, not like the scabrous prison we are. https://t.co/ihyQjRYtLd
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 8, 2018
I’m sorry, do we not remember how awful that photo of Albright toasting Kim Jong Il was? She took a raft of shit for that – and *rightly so* – and the new answer is “let’s do that again, this time with his weird freak of a kid and a sitting POTUS?” Has everyone lost their minds?
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 9, 2018
I haven't.
NorK TV will be blasting out propaganda for months about bringing an American president in line, with the threat of nuclear weapons. All hail dear leader.— Susan_Wright (@SweetieWalker) March 9, 2018
Thread. This is not a new offer. What’s new is a WH dumb enough to even consider taking it. https://t.co/DrUPhQJ1Z9
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 9, 2018
North Korea has been seeking a summit with an American president for more than twenty years. It has literally been a top foreign policy goal of Pyongyang since Kim Jong Il invited Bill Clinton. (1/3)
— Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) March 9, 2018
This is literally how the North Korean film "The Country I Saw" ends. An American President visits Pyongyang, compelled by North Korea's nuclear and missile programs to treat a Kim as an equal. (3/3)https://t.co/l3TqT2v8KL
— Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) March 9, 2018
PS: To be clear — we need to talk to North Korea. But Kim is not inviting Trump so that he can surrender North Korea's weapons. Kim is inviting Trump to demonstrate that his investment in nuclear and missile capabilities has forced the United States to treat him as an equal.
— Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) March 9, 2018
"Pentagon unaware of details."https://t.co/QrBo1froBn
— Stephen Hayes (@stephenfhayes) March 8, 2018
This is the announcement? A request by the DPRK government for the president to give them legitimacy and prestige without reciprocal concessions? And Trump wants credit for that… prospect, suggesting he’s entertaining it? … huh? https://t.co/EdzavkCYZG
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) March 8, 2018
We don’t have sitting presidents meet with the leader of NK. The North Koreans have craved it for decades. Major carrot we gave away for free
— Evan Siegfried (@evansiegfried) March 9, 2018
REMINDER: DPRK still holds USS PUEBLO, seized illegally in 1968. 1 sailor died & the rest were held hostage for a year. Don's new "friends."
— John Schindler (@20committee) March 9, 2018
Here’s what will happen:
– huge photo op
– propaganda bonanza for NK
– post summit, NK renegs on everything, keeps nukes
– NK blames US
– wasted time buys progress to ICBMs
– US looks like saps, allies facepalm
– nuclear NK, Kim looks like a global badass, US looks like chumps— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 9, 2018
Love Erin. But let’s all slow down here. https://t.co/r4Y2lm5gSN
— Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) March 9, 2018
Erin Burnett on CNN: If Trump solves the North Korea problem he "would be going down as a great president, and there's no getting around that." pic.twitter.com/cATtTfaFFh
— Eric Hartmane (@erichartmane) March 9, 2018
The same conservatives who rightly went nuts over this are now applauding an even worse idea. Because they're sure we'll totally have all the advance work in place in 60 days with a POTUS who can't hold a consistent position for 10 minutes at a time. pic.twitter.com/vLFWN3W5Vy
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 9, 2018
so hesitantly to the May summit news. So sure talks are good, and were this any other POTUS in the last 3 decades, I'd be thrilled. But consider that B Clinton wanted to visit North Korea only after 5 years of negotiating the Agreed Framework, & George W. Bush never seriously /2
— Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) March 9, 2018
has mostly been vacuous fluff, and we know Trump doesn't study or even read. He also tends to fly wildly off-script (will he make some unpredictable, off-the-wall concession to NK?). And May means there's almost no time for all the staff prep necessary. Nor has public or elite /4
— Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) March 9, 2018
not pulling provocations on the border, family reunions, or reopening the Kaesong industrial park are not concessions. These are costless to the North, easily taken away or reversed, or profitable to it. The acid test is if the North will actually give up something real, /6
— Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) March 9, 2018
more likely that there would be a series of concessions and counter-concessions building trust and credibility over time (likely years) eventually rising to a serious discussion of denuclearization. Yet somehow Trump is going to get around all this? Even though we know about /8
— Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) March 9, 2018
for which he is woefully unfit, will wander from decades of joint US-South Korea policy, about which he naturally knows nothing, and make some kind of deal for a 'win' that no other US official would endorse. Obviously I hope I am wrong, but nothing in Trump's management of /10
— Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) March 9, 2018
his campaign or White House says he is focused or knowledgeable enough for something this high stakes. And that's not ideology talking. I am a registered Republican and worked once for a GOP congressman. It's just from watching 3 years of Trump's shambolic incompetence. END
— Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) March 9, 2018
This North Korea summit-or-not mess underscores Trumpers refuse to admit with their "oh, it's a joke" mentality. When the President says something, it's policy. Every word he says has to be measured, because the fate of millions of people rest on what comes out of his mouth.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 10, 2018
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