{"id":60428,"date":"2018-03-10T06:09:52","date_gmt":"2018-03-10T06:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=60428"},"modified":"2018-03-10T06:09:52","modified_gmt":"2018-03-10T06:09:52","slug":"u-s-seeks-concrete-actions-north-korea-planned-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/u-s-seeks-concrete-actions-north-korea-planned-talks.html","title":{"rendered":"U.S. seeks ‘concrete actions’ from North Korea before planned talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. seeks ‘concrete actions’ from North Korea before planned talks<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump will not meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un unless Pyongyang takes \u201cconcrete actions,\u201d the White House said on Friday as it faced criticism for agreeing to talks that would boost Kim\u2019s standing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe president will not have the meeting without seeing concrete steps and concrete actions take place by North Korea, so the president will actually be getting something,\u201d White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a news briefing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sanders did not specify what actions North Korea needed to take, and a White House official later said she was not intending to set new conditions for talks with Kim.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the comments were a sign that an end to a standoff between the two countries over North Korea\u2019s nuclear weapon program is not imminent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump did little to clear up confusion over the timing of talks and any preconditions when he took to Twitter late on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe deal with North Korea is very much in the making and will be, if completed, a very good one for the World. Time and place to be determined,\u201d he wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

The United States has long said it wants any talks to aim at Pyongyang abandoning its nuclear weapons and missile programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hopes for a breakthrough with North Korea rose on Thursday when Trump said he was prepared to hold an unprecedented meeting with Kim.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two leaders prompted jitters around the world last year as they exchanged bellicose insults over the North\u2019s attempts to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States. Pyongyang has pursued its nuclear program in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

But tension eased around last month\u2019s Winter Olympics in South Korea, laying the groundwork for what would be the first meeting between leaders from North Korea and the United States, and the biggest foreign policy gamble for Trump since he took office in January last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The head of South Korea\u2019s National Security Office, Chung Eui-yong, speaking in Washington on Thursday after briefing Trump about a meeting South Korean officials held with Kim this week, said the U.S. president had agreed to meet the North Korean leader by May in response to an invitation from Kim.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kim had \u201ccommitted to denuclearization\u201d and to suspending nuclear and missile tests, Chung said.<\/span><\/p>\n

BUYING TIME?<\/span>
\nA senior State Department official said the talks would likely only be a preliminary discussion about holding future negotiations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe expectation is that the talks would lead to a discussion around a conclusion that we\u2019re ready to engage in negotiations,\u201d the official said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s sudden decision to meet with Kim stunned even people in his own administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sanders\u2019 comments seemed aimed at criticism in the United States that Trump took a misstep by agreeing to talks – thus giving Pyongyang the international legitimacy it seeks – but without earning any big concessions from the North.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Administration must go into any meeting with a plan to ensure that negotiations with Kim Jong-un produce real results, not a photo op that lends legitimacy to North Korea\u2019s murderous regime,\u201d U.S. Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat who is vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some U.S. officials and experts worry North Korea could buy time to build up and refine its nuclear arsenal if it drags out talks with Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n

A White House official said Trump remained committed to a meeting with Kim based on the conditions laid out by South Korea on Thursday: that Kim is committed to denuclearization, will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests, and understands that U.S.-South Korean military exercises must continue.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c(The North Koreans) are saying the right things and we\u2019re going to listen to them at the table and we\u2019re going to see where this leads,\u201d the official said.<\/span><\/p>\n

No venue or date has been announced for the summit, which is expected to be held in May. Neutral Switzerland, which often hosts summits, said it was ready to facilitate the meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

CHINA WELCOMES TALKS<\/span>
\nA Trump-Kim summit would be a major turnaround after a year in which North Korea has carried out a battery of missile tests that Washington sees as provocative and after a barrage of insults between the two leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S.-based experts say North Korea appeared to show last November that it has succeeded in developing a missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon anywhere in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump has derided Kim as a \u201cmaniac,\u201d referred to him as \u201clittle rocket man\u201d and threatened in a speech last year to \u201ctotally destroy\u201d North Korea, a country of 26 million people, if it attacked the United States or one of its allies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kim responded by calling Trump a \u201cmentally deranged U.S. dotard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Trump administration has led a worldwide push to tighten international sanctions on North Korea to choke off resources needed for its weapons programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

World leaders welcomed prospects for a possible thaw in the Korea standoff including China, which is North Korea\u2019s largest trading partner and its sole major ally.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chinese President Xi Jinping told Trump in a phone call on Friday that he appreciates his desire to resolve the North Korea issue politically, Chinese state media said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Xi \u201chopes the United States and North Korea start contacts and dialogue as soon as possible and strive to reach positive results,\u201d the report added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/in.reuters.com\/article\/northkorea-missiles-southkorea-usa\/u-s-seeks-concrete-actions-from-north-korea-before-planned-talks-idINKCN1GJ3AT<\/span><\/p>\n

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