Washington, DC – President Donald Trump said he planned to speak during a meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, about “possible future meetings” with North Korea, which would allow a dialogue with Pyongyang to resume. the failed Hanoi summit.
“There could be a third summit” (between Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un), assured the president in declarations to the press when receiving Moon in the White House.
The dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang has stalled since the end of February, when the second summit between Trump and Kim, held in the capital of Vietnam, closed without agreement on the process to denuclearize North Korea.
“I enjoy summits, I enjoy being with the leader (Kim), but you have to go step by step,” said the president.
Trump said that “also” it would be possible to schedule a three-party summit, with Moon, Kim and him, but said that “will depend a lot” on the North Korean leader.
The president also opened the door to close “smaller agreements” with North Korea that do not necessarily have to do with denuclearization.
“There are several smaller agreements that could possibly happen, things could happen, we could solve pieces step by step, but right now we are talking about the big deal, and the big deal is that we have to get rid of the North Korean nuclear weapons,” Trump said. .
However, he added that he wants “that the sanctions continue,” which keeps the approach proposed by Pyongyang on the table for Washington to gradually lift economic restrictions in exchange for advances in denuclearization.
“Frankly, I have the option to increase them significantly, but I did not want to, because of my relationship with Kim Jong-un,” the US president stressed, referring to his announcement last month that he had ordered the Treasury not to impose new sanctions on Korea. from North.
Asked about the possibility of allowing inter-Korean economic projects to be activated, such as the reopening of the Kaesong industrial estate, located in North Korean territory and closed since 2016, Trump responded: “At the right time, I would have great support (to do so). This is not the right time. “
He added that he would talk to Moon about “certain humanitarian things” that their countries can do for North Korea, and assured that his relationship with Kim is “good”, but did not want to clarify if he had had contact with him in the last two weeks.
Moon, for his part, said he did not see the Hanoi summit as a failure, but as part of a long “process” with North Korea to solve a complex problem. (EFEUSA)
