Trump says summit with Kim is back on

Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump have previously called each other mad[/caption] Donald Trump’s summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore on 12 June is back on, the US president says, a week after it was scrapped. Mr Trump made the announcement after talks with a senior North Korean envoy at the White House. The envoy, General Kim Yong-chol, hand-delivered a letter from the North Korean leader to President Trump. Mr Trump at first said the letter was “very interesting” but later said he had not yet opened it. He also said the issue of formally ending the Korean War would be on the table in Singapore. The 1950-53 conflict only ended with a truce, not a final peace treaty. “We’ll be meeting on June 12th in Singapore. It went very well,” President Trump told reporters on the White House lawn. “We’ve got to know their people very well,” he added. Mr Trump cautioned that the summit might not achieve a final deal on the North’s controversial nuclear programme. “I never said it goes in one meeting. I think it’s going to be a process, but the relationships are building and that’s very positive,” he said. The historic meeting between Mr Trump and Kim Jong-un would be the first between sitting US and North Korean leaders. President Trump has offered to help rebuild the North’s economy if it scraps its nuclear weapons. Kim Jong-un says he is committed to “denuclearisation” in some form but his precise demands are unclear. Gen Kim Yong-chol’s visit to Washington came a day after he met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York. Mr Pompeo described their talks about denuclearisation “substantive”. “President Trump and I believe Chairman Kim is the kind of leader who can make those kinds of decisions. And that in the coming weeks and months, we will have the opportunity to test whether or not this is the case,” he said. Mr Kim’s letter reportedly expresses his interest in meeting without making any significant concessions or threats in regards to denuclearisation, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a foreign government official who was briefed on the contents. How did we get here? North Korea has carried out six nuclear tests and numerous tests of ballistic missiles, all the while maintaining a barrage of belligerent rhetoric against its enemies, particularly the US. It claims to have developed a nuclear weapon small enough to be carried by a long-range missile, although this remains unverified. Previous attempts to negotiate with North Korea have failed, but earlier this year Pyongyang held direct talks with Seoul and the two Korean leaders held a historic summit in April. With relations thawing, the US has pledged to help rebuild North Korea’s economy if it agrees to give up its nuclear weapons. But the US wants denuclearisation first and it is unclear whether Mr Kim will agree to fully abandon his nuclear arsenal. Source: BBC]]>