Door Open to Trump-Kim Meeting, but Schedule Is a Blank Slate

[Financial News] U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on the 1st (local time) that President Trump was prepared to meet with Chairman Kim Jong Un. He explained that Trump’s basic view is that he does not see dialogue or a meeting as a concession to the other side.
At the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, Rubio told reporters that he understood that traditional foreign policy sometimes treats meeting someone or inviting them to an event as a kind of concession that legitimizes the other side, but said, “The president does not view dialogue or a meeting as a concession.”
Rubio went on to explain, “The president’s view is that if Chairman Kim is prepared to discuss issues that concern our allies, such as the United States and South Korea, President Trump is open to that.” He added, “As President Trump has said publicly and repeatedly, he is prepared for such a meeting.” Recalling that Trump held two meetings with Chairman Kim during his first term, Rubio stressed, “If such a meeting yields a productive outcome, I think President Trump would be willing to resume talks.”
No concrete schedule has been announced. Rubio made clear, “No meeting has been scheduled yet. There is nothing to announce on that today.”
The leaders of North Korea and the United States held their first summit in Singapore in June 2018, but the second summit, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019, ended without an agreement. The two leaders met again at Panmunjom on June 30 of the same year, and Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to step onto the North Korean side.
Ahead of his visit to South Korea last October, President Trump also repeatedly proposed meeting with Chairman Kim, but no favorable response from the North was confirmed. Last May, a White House official also said that no meeting with Kim had been scheduled at that point during President Trump’s Asia trip. The G20 Summit, which the United States will host in Miami, Florida, on December 14–15 as the G20 chair, is seen as the next major forum for multilateral diplomacy.

[email protected] Seung-hyun Ahn Reporter