WILL IT BE JUNE 12?
by Sharon Rondeau
(May 27, 2018) — At approximately 4:45 PM EDT on Sunday, President Donald Trump tweeted that his much-anticipated meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un canceled on Thursday is once again on his schedule.
Trump had not tweeted for approximately six hours following his latest comments on the Mueller “Russia collusion” investigation.
“Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself,” Trump tweeted. “I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!”
On Thursday, Trump had sent a letter to Kim Jong-Un expressing considerable regret that he felt compelled to cancel the June 12 summit in Singapore given rhetoric issued by highly-placed North Korean officials referencing a “nuclear showdown” with the United States.
Two weeks ago, U.S. officials had flown to Singapore for a preparatory meeting which North Korean officials failed to attend. The Associated Press reported that according to “a senior U.S. official,” North Korea did not permit international observers to verify that a nuclear test site, which might have been obsolete in any event, had been destroyed.
However, in his letter, Trump wrote, “If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write. North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth.”
Trump’s tweets and public statements since Thursday have indicated that the summit could still take place on June 12 or at a later date.
On Friday, North Korea responded to Trump by saying that it is “willing to give the U.S. time and opportunities at any time, at any format,” CBS News reported.
The Washington Post editorialized that Trump’s cancellation of the meeting was one of “bad timing,” while Business Insider opined that Jong-Un’s quick response was evidence that “Pyongyang appears to be scrambling to save the summit.”
Late Saturday morning, ABC News reported that White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters that a U.S. delegation would “leave as scheduled in order to prepare should the summit take place.”
Further, according to ABC, on Saturday morning Jong-Un and South Korean president Moon Jae-In met in the city of Panmunjom, located in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, “to discuss a potential summit between the North Korean leader and Trump.”
On Sunday morning, Newsweek reported that “The much-hyped meeting between U.S. president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will seemingly take place in Singapore next month on the same date as previously planned before the surprise cancellation that emerged from the White House on Thursday.”
Since the separation of the two Koreas by the DMZ in 1953, no U.S. president has sat down in person with a North Korean dictator. For decades, North Korea has pursued nuclear weapons and threatened its immediate neighbors and the U.S. with an attack.
The Trump administration has said that its goal is to aid in the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
According to Reuters on Sunday, Jae-In told reporters after his most recent meeting with Kim, “Chairman Kim and I have agreed that the June 12 summit should be held successfully, and that our quest for the Korean peninsula’s denuclearisation and a perpetual peace regime should not be halted.”