South Korea Could Join Potential Trump-Kim Summit
There may have to be another seat at the negotiating table if President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un actually sit down in Singapore, USA Today reports.
According to the newspaper, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is reportedly interested in attending the historic summit with the other leaders should it actually come off.
“The discussions are just getting started, so we are still waiting to see how they come out, but… [Moon] could join President Trump and [North Korean leader] Kim [Jong Un] in Singapore,” an anonymous senior South Korean official with Moon’s office reportedly told the Yonhap news agency in the USA Today story.
The news comes as representatives from the U.S. and North Korea spent the weekend trying to smooth over last week’s rough rhetorical waters that led President Trump to cancel the planned June 12 meeting in Singapore, the USA Today report said.
Moon has been instrumental in communicating between the two countries and went as far as to credit President Trump’s handling of the rogue North Korean nation to bring about the historic summit, which would bring both leaders together for the first time in decades to discuss the denuclearization of the peninsula, according to published reports.
After setting things in motion, including setting the date and location for the summit, North Korea sent out statements last week threatening nuclear confrontation and calling U.S. Vice President Mike Pence “a political dummy.”
North Korea set three Americans held in that country free as a sign of goodwill ahead of the talks.
The latest remarks, however, caused President Trump to call off the meeting in light of the rhetoric coming from North Korea, the Inquisitr previously reported.
President Trump sent a letter to the North Korean dictator informing him of the decision but left the door open in case there was a desire for the summit to go forward.
Despite the tense rhetoric, representatives from both nations continued throughout the weekend to walk back the discord and work on the details of moving forward with the talks, USA Today reported.
Moon and Kim met Saturday and said North Korea intends on denuclearizing and unifying the country, which has remained technically at war for more than 70 years.
According to Moon, Kim said during the meeting that he “made clear once again his intentions to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula,” USA Today reported.
On Sunday, President Trump tweeted optimistically about the summit moving ahead despite last week’s hiccup.
“I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day,” Trump tweeted. “Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen.”
