North Korean officials have told their U.S. counterparts that leader Kim Jong Un is open and ready to talk about the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“The U.S. has confirmed that Kim Jong Un is willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” a Trump administration official told the publication on Sunday.
The Journal report follows a CNN report on Saturday saying Washington and Pyongyang were in direct communication in secret to prepare for the upcoming summit between Kim and President Trump Donald John TrumpBaldwin returns to 'SNL' as Trump and admits presidency is just 'a four- year cash grab' Maxine Waters: Republicans 'intimidated' by Trump Trump: Pruitt 'doing a great job' MORE.
Officials told the network that CIA Director Mike Pompeo, whom Trump has nominated to be secretary of State, has been leading back-channel talks for the summit, which is slated for May.
North Korea is reportedly pushing to hold the talks in its capital, Pyongyang, but it is unclear whether Trump is willing to travel to the city.
CNN reports that Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, is also being considered as a potential meeting place.
Trump agreed to meet with Kim after a South Korean envoy extended Kim’s invitation to the president last month. The White House said Trump expected Kim to take concrete "steps" prior to the meeting.
The upcoming summit follows a tense year between the two leaders.
Trump has frequently lambasted North Korea for its continued intercontinental ballistic missile tests, referring to Kim as "Little Rocket Man."
Kim, in turn, has defied the global community's calls to halt his tests, and has referred to Trump as a "dotard."
2348014312409 on April 9th, 2018 at 00:50 UTC »
Spoiler alert: NK will only denuclearize if the entire peninsula does, which includes the US pulling their 28,000+ troops out of SK.
They've pulled this type of "peace talk" ~3-4 times now. If if he's softened a bit on pulling all troops out, I'd be amazed if Un's conditions don't include heavily penalizing the US... because he's (rightfully) paranoid (any despot should be).
NK has cited Gaddafi's path with the US numerous times. He walked back on chemical and nuclear weapon programs to make peace with the US and ended up dead shortly after.
JJaysNotHome on April 8th, 2018 at 21:28 UTC »
Genuinely happy how things are going with Korea but I'm very worried that once peace is found that the skeletons will start coming out of the closet.
North Korea is committing some seriously fucked up atrocities to its people and I wonder how long it will continue for.
JustAteAPizza on April 8th, 2018 at 20:45 UTC »
Are we going to send Trump or James Franco?