Trump agrees to meet Kim Jong-un: North Korean despot invites President to talks before May and agrees to suspend missile tests
South Korea’s national security adviser Chung Eui-yong informed U.S. press of the expected in-person conversation
Made the announcement from the North Lawn of the White House, steps from the West Wing
White House confirmed that talks would take place but did not second Chung’s claim that it would happen before May
Neither Chung nor the White House said where the talk would take place
Trump tweeted an hour after the announcement that ‘great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached’
As part of the initial agreement, Kim said, according to the South Korean government, that he would freeze nuclear and ballistic missile tests
Kim also understands that the U.S. and South Korea will continue their routine, joint military exercises, officials from both countries stressed
By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS
DAILYMAIL.COM
8 March 2018
President Donald Trump has accepted North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s dramatic offer to meet, and he’ll do it by May, a South Korean official said Thursday evening.
South Korea’s national security adviser Chung Eui-yong informed U.S. press of the expected in-person conversation and said the goal of the unprecedented meeting between the two countries’ leaders is permanent denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Chung did not say where the meeting would take place.
A half hour after the foreign official announced the meeting steps from the West Wing, the White House confirmed Trump’s participation. But it did not second Chung’s claim that talks would be held within the next two months.
A statement from White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the place and time of the meeting was still being worked out.
‘President Trump greatly appreciates the nice words of the South Korean delegation and President Moon. He will accept the invitation to meet with Kim Jong Un at a place and time to be determined,’ Sanders said. ‘We look forward to the denuclearization of North Korea. In the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain.’
A U.S. official said the meeting would take place in ‘a matter of a couple of months’ but did not commit the president to a face-to-face with Kim this spring.
Kim made the overture to U.S. president who has repeatedly called him ‘Little Rocket Man’ orally through Chung, the person said.
‘He conveyed that he wants to meet with President Trump as quickly as possible,’ the senior official stated.
The North Koreans are offering to suspend their nuclear missile testing program, Chung told White House officials before he briefed press from the building’s North Lawn.
Chung said that Kim understands and accepts the fact that joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises will continue.
The senior U.S. official who spoke to reporters after Chung’s televised statement said the stiff punishing actions on North Korea would also stay in place.
‘At this point we’re not even talking about negotiations,’ the official said of a plan to hold North Korea to its word that it would freeze its illicit nuclear and ballistic missile development programs.
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