Will North Korean and U.S. leaders meet? Experts say a summit is more likely, but would be for show

[Financial News] Ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Asia trip, a series of assessments by U.S. foreign policy and security experts said that the chances of a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had actually increased since the U.S. midterm elections. Cautious voices also warned that it would be difficult for a meeting to produce tangible results.
On the 9th (local time), Stephen Biegun, who led working-level negotiations with North Korea during the first Trump administration as the State Department’s former special representative for North Korea, said, “Both President Trump and Chairman Kim would be willing to take part in a kind of summit staged for show, one that would focus the world’s attention on them.” He assessed that North Korea feels overly dependent on China and Russia and may seek to expand its ties with the United States to balance its relationships with those countries.
Victor Cha, the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), also said that day, “The chances of a North Korea-U.S. summit have increased since the midterm elections.” Cha said, “President Trump will focus on building up his record after his midterm-election loss,” adding, “The area to which President Trump has personally devoted a great deal of time during his two terms is North Korea.” He predicted, “North Korea, too, likely sees President Trump as ‘weaker and therefore an easier target,’” and “would want contact with the United States to keep President Trump from acting unpredictably, as he has in Iran or Venezuela.”
By contrast, former Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell voiced skepticism about the prospect of substantive progress at a North Korea-U.S. summit. Campbell said, “North Korea conveyed the position that ‘the only condition under which it would consider a summit is for the United States to recognize North Korea as a nuclear-weapon state.’” He added, “It would be almost impossible for President Trump to accept this. Both the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States would immediately object.” He predicted that “even if the North Korean and U.S. leaders meet, it will be difficult to make any progress beyond a handshake of sorts.”
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