Expectations for Kim Jong un-Trump meeting

The United States said it welcomes the upcoming meeting between North Korean and South Korean leaders, ahead of a planned meeting between President Donald Trump and Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

President Trump's administration has voiced optimism that the jinn will take steps towards nuclear disarmament, but is calling for the continuation of the United States-led maximum pressure campaign until that goal is realised.

President Donald Trump surprised many experts Thursday when he warned that he could postpone signing a free trade agreement with South Korea, which was successfully renegotiated only a day ago, until an agreement with North Korea was reached on its nuclear programme. But Trump still seemed optimistic about his planned meeting with Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

“We are doing very well with North Korea, we will see what happens. Of course the rhetoric's a little relaxed, isn't it?

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States thinks Kim Jong Un's surprise trip to China increases the chances for a successful Kim-Trump meeting.

The State Department is making plans for this meeting. We are moving forward with full faith and good will. We've had many conversations with the Republic of Korea about the content of that meeting, and we generally believe that the pressure campaign is working. ”

Some experts are concerned that Kim Jong Un may have a very different meaning than that of President Trump and American negotiators regarding nuclear disarmament. Douglas Paal from the Carnegie Endowment organisation says each side should make clear its expectations.

“Expectations should be part of the high-level agenda and part of preliminary preparation meetings. It would not be good for a president to go to a meeting that would automatically be disastrous because of the very different goals of the parties for the meeting. ”

However, concerns about the meeting, the UN secretary for political issues, says the situation is much better than the extremely high tensions over North Korea just a few months ago.

It's been four months since the last gun test. It's not the same as nuclear disarmament, but this means that instead of increasing tensions at an alarming pace, we have a scenario in which different parties are negotiating the organisation of meetings at different levels to see if a solution can be found that would be in line with the UN resolution on nuclear disarmament”.

Feltman said he hoped that future meetings would be the beginning of a long process towards nonproliferation of nuclear weapons in the region. /voa