Trump, Kim tease third North Korea summit
President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday that a third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “would be good,” writing glowingly of his relationship with the despot and adding that he anticipates the day the repressive state becomes “one of the most successful nations” on Earth.
“I agree with Kim Jong Un of North Korea that our personal relationship remains very good, perhaps the term excellent would be even more accurate, and that a third Summit would be good in that we fully understand where we each stand,” Trump wrote online just before 8 a.m. in Washington.
“North Korea has tremendous potential for… extraordinary growth, economic success and riches under the leadership of Chairman Kim,” the president continued. “I look forward to the day, which could be soon, when Nuclear Weapons and Sanctions can be removed, and then watching North Korea become one of the most successful nations of the World!”
Trump’s overture followed a report by North Korea’s state-run media that Kim said Saturday he is open to another summit with his American counterpart.
“If the U.S. adopts a correct posture and comes forward for the third DPRK-U.S. summit with a certain methodology that can be shared with us, we can think of holding one more talks,” Kim said, referring to his nation’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
But if the U.S. “persists in its present political calculation method,” Kim warned that “the prospect of settling the issues will gloomy and very dangerous.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this month said he is “confident there will be” another meeting between Trump and Kim, after an abrupt end to the leaders’ unproductive meeting in Vietnam in February.
“We came out of Hanoi with a deeper understanding of each other,” Pompeo told CBS News. “The positions that the two sides had, the two leaders were able to make progress in that respect. We didn’t get as far as the world is demanding. These are global sanctions that are on North Korea today.”
Trump and Kim first came face-to-face at a summit in June 2018 in Singapore — the first-ever meeting of leaders of their respective countries.
The president on Saturday morning also blasted House Democrats’ efforts to probe deeper into special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings. Attorney General William Barr is expected to soon release to Congress a redacted version of Mueller’s final report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
“Why should Radical Left Democrats in Congress have a right to retry and examine the $35,000,000 (two years in the making) No Collusion Mueller Report, when the crime committed was by Crooked Hillary, the DNC and Dirty Cops?,” Trump tweeted. “Attorney General Barr will make the decision!”