"U.S.-North Korea Summit Could Be Held as Early as November or December"... Kim Could Also Be Invited to G20

[Financial News] A summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could be held as early as November or December this year, analysts say. With North Korea leaving room for dialogue, the U.S. midterm elections and the Group of Twenty (G20) summit are expected to serve as turning points.
Vincent Brooks, former commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said during a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., on the 3rd local time, "Signals are being sent constantly (from North Korea)." He assessed that "not using insulting language toward the United States means North Korea is leaving the door open to dialogue." Brooks said, "Both sides will likely try to establish points of contact this fall and then hold substantive follow-up discussions," identifying the period between the U.S. midterm elections in November and the G20 summit in December as the earliest possible window for a summit. However, he placed greater weight on the possibility that the meeting would take place after both events to ensure more substantive discussions. Regarding North Korea's denuclearization, he added, "It is not impossible if an exchange of security guarantees takes place."
Victor Cha, the Korea chair at CSIS, also offered a positive assessment of the possibility of dialogue with North Korea. Cha interpreted a statement by Kim Yo Jong, deputy department director of the Workers' Party, as "playing the role of a hard-liner while leaving the door open." He said North Korea would likely wait for the midterm election results to increase its leverage. In particular, he raised the possibility that President Trump could stage a "surprise event" by inviting Chairman Kim to the G20 summit in Miami, Florida, in December.  This year's G20 summit will be held on December 14 and 15 at Trump National Doral Miami in Miami, Florida.
Cha analyzed that North Korea has sufficient incentives to engage in dialogue with the United States even while receiving support from China and Russia. Contact with Washington could increase Pyongyang's bargaining leverage with Beijing and Moscow and serve as a hedge against the possibility of U.S. pressure, as in the cases of Iran and Venezuela. He also noted that South Korea's moves to pursue nuclear-powered submarines and reprocessing could help drive North Korea to the negotiating table.
The two experts, meanwhile, differed in their views on President Trump's recent reduction of South Korea-U.S. joint exercises. Cha interpreted the move under the second Trump administration as a corresponding U.S. measure in response to North Korea's suspension of nuclear and long-range ballistic missile tests. Brooks, however, criticized it as "a disrespectful act toward the alliance and a measure that undermined deterrence," while emphasizing that next week's South Korea-U.S.-Japan Freedom Edge exercise should proceed without disruption.

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