Wanderlust

Tag: Moon Jae

  • Mike Pompeo: North Korea talks progress

    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday trumpeted progress in U.S.-North Korean relations on a slew of issues, from efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon nuclear weapons to closing in on details f

    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday trumpeted progress in U.S.-North Korean relations on a slew of issues, from efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon nuclear weapons to closing in on details for a second Trump-Kim Jong-un summit.

    Mr. Pompeo arrived in Seoul hours after wrapping up his fourth visit to North Korea on Sunday, telling reporters it was a “good trip” and that he and Mr. Kim made strides on the initiatives discussed at June’s historic summit in Singapore between the North Korean leader and President Trump.

    “We had a good, productive conversation,” Mr. Pompeo said during a joint briefing with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. “As President Trump said, there are many steps along the way, and we took one of them today. It was another step forward. So this is, I think, a good outcome for all of us.”

    According to Associated Press reports, Mr. Kim echoed Mr. Pompeo’s optimism. “It’s a very nice day that promises a good future for both countries,” Mr. Kim said as he, Mr. Pompeo and their respective entourages met for a 90-minute working lunch at the Paekhwawon State Guest House in the North Korean capital.

    Prior to the lunch, Mr. Kim and Mr. Pompeo held closed-door talks for roughly 3 hours. Stephen Biegun, U.S. special envoy for North Korea, and Andrew Kim, head of the Korea working group at the CIA, attended as part of the U.S. delegation. Mr. Kim was accompanied by his sister, Kim Yo-jong, and Kim Yong-chol, the North’s former top intelligence official and the main conduit for talks between the regime and Mr. Pompeo.

    Despite the goodwill expressed by both sides, neither Mr. Pompeo nor Mr. Kim opted to disclose details. During the joint press conference in Seoul, Mr. Moon attempted to press Mr. Pompeo to shed a little light on Sunday’s talks.

    “Since we have the media present here, I would like to ask you to disclose anything that you can open to the public here,” Mr. Moon said. Mr. Pompeo politely declined, telling the South Korean leader, “I don’t have much to add but we had a good, productive conversation.”

    White House critics argue that Mr. Kim and the regime in the North have leveraged Mr. Trump’s efforts to engage with Pyongyang to earn legitimacy in the international community while harboring no real intention to follow through on major U.S. initiatives, such as denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.

    However, administration officials argue that Mr. Trump has broken through decades of diplomatic impasses that have stymied previous efforts to establish ties with Pyongyang. But officials have acknowledged the road to reconciliation for North Korea, the U.S. and the international community remains long.

    Bilateral talks between North Korea and Washington faltered recently, and Mr. Trump canceled an earlier round of meetings. Sunday’s talks marked the first breakthrough in that impasse since Singapore.

    Mr. Pompeo’s visit to North Korea was “better than the last time [but] it’s going to be a long haul” to get Mr. Kim to acquiesce to Washington’s demands, a U.S. official tied to Mr. Pompeo’s delegation told Fox News on Sunday.

    While details were scarce on Sunday’s meeting, U.S. officials said the visit focused on the nuts and bolts of the denuclearization process, proffered by the Trump administration in June, as well as the diplomatic parameters for a proposed second summit between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim.

    In Washington, Mr. Trump indicated his willingness to hold a second face-to-face summit with the North Korean leader.

    “I look forward to seeing Chairman Kim again, in the near future,” Mr. Trump tweeted Sunday, citing the progress he and Mr. Kim made in Singapore, just as Mr. Pompeo was wrapping up his visit in Pyongyang.

    Analysts in the U.S. were upbeat but cautious.

    “While there is no way Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in roughly 210 minutes with Chairman Kim Jong-un achieved any major breakthroughs Sunday, [he] may have achieved his goal nonetheless: exploring the timing and possible locations for a second U.S.-North Korea summit,” said Harry Kazianis, head of defense studies at the Washington-based Center for the National Interest.

    Mr. Trump’s willingness to secure a second summit with North Korea could lead to an offer to officially end the Korean War, Mr. Kazianis said, in exchange “for a big action towards denuclearization.”

    “Trump will likely be tempted to hold such a summit quickly, and possibly even in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, to make history and drive headlines, pointing to another success right before the midterm elections,” he said.

    The administration has resisted efforts to officially end the war between North and South Korea — the two countries are technically under a 1953 cease-fire agreement — out of concern that a peace deal would increase pressure on the U.S. to remove troops from South Korea.

    But Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim have pushed for the end-of-war declaration by December. Mr. Moon has argued that he and Mr. Kim have agreed that such a “political declaration” wouldn’t require the pullout of 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.

  • Seoul: ‘U.S., North Korea in energy struggle of wrestling game’

    SEOUL, July 9 (UPI) — South Korea’s presidential office said the Usa and North Korea are in an influence fight by which neither want to provide in, regarding the cut up reactions proven via each side after the prime-stage talks on denuclearization in Pyongyang.

    “We see at it as an influence combat the place each side try to win an advantageous position as the negotiation procedure proceeds,” said Kim Eui-kyeom, South Korea’s presidential office spokesperson stated all over a news briefing on Monday, evaluating the U.S.-North negotiation to a Korean conventional wrestling recreation, Joongang Ilbo pronounced.

    “What appears at the floor might look competitive reactions.”

    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korea’s most sensible denuclearization negotiator Kim Yong-chol met in Pyongyang for his or her -day talks as a observe-up to the U.S.-North summit in Singapore.

    Pompeo called the meeting with North Korean negotiators “very efficient” and mentioned they discussed the timeline and declaration of the North’s nuclear and missile amenities, in line with Yonhap.

    North Korea denounced a U.S. way to the denuclearization negotiation within the remark launched through a foreign minister spokesperson through its state media KCNA.

    “The U.S. facet got here up only with its unilateral and gangster-like call for for denuclearization just calling for CVID, announcement and verification, all of which run counter to the spirit of the Singapore summit meeting and talks,” the remark stated.

    CVID stands for whole, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of the North Korea’s nuclear software, the lengthy-status objective for North’s nuclear disarmament.

    Pompeo hit again announcing: “If the ones requests had been gangster-like, the world is a gangster,” on the news conference in Tokyo with Japanese and South Korean international ministers on Sunday.

    South Korea’s presidential place of business viewed the meeting as the first operating-level talks held after the Singapore summit the place negotiators of each side brazenly talked about what they wanted.

    “the 2-day assembly lasted a complete of 9 hours,” said Kim. “that is the primary time they freely shared what they sought after.”

    South Korean President Moon Jae-in mentioned he sees the continued U.S.-North negotiation on denuclearization “certain and constructive” in his meeting with Indian Exterior Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday, Yonhap mentioned. Moon is on a state talk over with to India.

    Moon acted as a mediator between the countries within the run-as much as the Singapore summit on June 12.

  • Kim Jong Un’s non-public aircraft flew to Russia, flight information show

    July 9 (UPI) — A PERSONAL North Korean plane belonging to Kim Jong Un was once seen flying to Vladivostok, Russia, and again, in step with data from Flight Radar 24.

    North Korean Air Pressure One, also referred to as Chammae-1, is a modified Soviet jetliner Ilyushin II-62M plane.

    The aircraft was captured on radar on Monday making the shuttle to the Russian A Long Way East and returning to North Korea the same day after three hours, South Korean information company Yonhap said.

    there’s speculation in Seoul the airplane used to be carrying a North Korean running workforce to Vladivostok sooner than the Eastern Financial Forum to be held in September, according to the document.

    Russia has invited Kim to attend the discussion board, the place President Vladimir Putin, in addition as Japan’s Shinzo Abe and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in can be in attendance.

    The North Korean leader has but to reply to the invitation, however last month Kim despatched a Korean Workers’ Birthday Celebration delegation to the Russian Some Distance East, most likely in anticipation of closer ties with Moscow.

    EDaily reported Monday North Korea’s national provider Air Koryo operates regular flights among Pyongyang and Vladivostok, and the charter aircraft was once a “unique flight” that drew the attention of screens.

    North Korea’s recent round of negotiations with the U.s.a. ended with harsh phrases from Pyongyang referring to U.S. demands for denuclearization, and it is most probably Kim is calling toward allies like Russia for strengthen.

    North Korea’s ongoing engagement with the outside international is happening following a yr when industry used to be hit by means of sanctions.

    Seoul’s Korea Trade-Investment Company mentioned Monday that in 2017 North Korea’s total business fell 15 %, and Pyongyang’s business deficit reached $2.01 billion, up 125.5 p.c from the former year.

    China and Russia are Pyongyang’s largest trading partners.

  • Seoul to analyze military plan for crackdown on anti-Park protesters

    SEOUL, July 10 (UPI) — South Korea will look at the military’s debatable plan to use pressure to quell protesters calling for the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye last 12 months.

    South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered the establishment of an independent body to appear into the problem, presidential office spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said throughout a press briefing on Tuesday, consistent with Yonhap.

    The investigation frame will encompass army prosecutors no longer related to military units answerable for the document and will have autonomy from the Defense Ministry.

    “The Reason for making it unbiased is that there’s a possibility that former and present of safeguard ministry officials are involved,” Kim said. “And research by any similar military prosecutors will not be sufficient to dissolve skepticism.”

    a military report detailing plans for the crackdown on anti-Park protesters was disclosed remaining week through a ruling celebration lawmaker.

    The document, dated March 2017, comprises plans for declaring martial law and mobilizing army forces if massive protests erupted across the country within the adventure the courtroom rejected the impeachment of Park. It was written by the counterterrorism and counterintelligence army company Defense Security Command.

    Hundreds of protesters took to the streets for months starting in October 2016, outraged by a series of corruption and influence-peddling scandals regarding Park. Protests continued every weekend calling for her to step down. In March 2017, the South Korean Constitutional Court reached an unanimous determination to impeach Park.

    The Center for Army Human Rights Korea also filed petitions towards former and present most sensible officials of the DSC on Tuesday, Information 1 suggested.

    The Seoul-primarily based civic workforce bought and released the entire military record on its website online final week. The report details plans to mobilize military instruments and infantrymen, together with 200 tanks, 550 armored automobiles, 4,800 armed troops and 1,400 special forces in Seoul, to boot as nationwide army operations.

  • South Korean basketball gamers to carry friendly match in Pyongyang

    SEOUL, July 2 (UPI) — South Korean basketball avid gamers will grasp a joint basketball fit with North Korean gamers in Pyongyang from Wednesday to Thursday.

    The South Korean crew of fellows and ladies professional players left for Pyongyang on Tuesday on an army airplane from Seongnam, south of Seoul, Yonhap stated. South Korean government officials and reporters additionally followed.

    The joint basketball recreation is held for the primary time in additional than a decade for the reason that last one within the North Korean capital in 2003. it is the fourth game in basketball exchanges between the North and South. the primary matches came about in Pyongyang and Seoul in 1999, in keeping with Edaily.

    “As Pyeongchang Iciness Olympics laid the foundation for peace on the Korean peninsula, i hope the basketball fit will additional boost up the process for peace,” said Cho Myoung-gyon, Unification Minister to newshounds previous to his departure, Yonhap said.

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is known to be an avid basketball fan. He invited the previous NBA megastar player Dennis Rodman to the North a couple of times.

    at the North-South summit in April, Kim additionally urged to South Korean President Moon Jae-in that he would love to ask South Korean basketball gamers to play with avid gamers in the North.

    South and North Korean basketball athletes will hold a set of 4 suits from Wednesday to Thursday.

  • South Korea’s Moon Jae-in: Joint drills must be ‘reviewed’

    June 14 (UPI) — Annual joint workout routines between the United States Of America and South Korea must be “reviewed,” if they coincide with dialogue with North Korea, South Korean President Moon Jae-in stated Thursday.

    Moon, who met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday, then held a general assembly of his national safety council, praised President Donald Trump for holding the summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un this week, Yonhap mentioned.

    “again I pay tribute to President Trump and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un for his or her daring courage and get to the bottom of for creating a difficult selection,” Moon mentioned. “I hang within the easiest regard the leaders of the Usa and North Korea after 70 years of hostilities, to fulfill and conform to identify a permanent peace regime and to agree at the entire denuclearization of North Korea.”

    Moon additionally stated within the spirit of the Panmunjom Assertion signed with the North on April 27, there is a need to “moderately evaluate” the joint workout routines.

    “If North Korea in reality contains out denuclearization measures, sincere dialogue maintains and hostilities with the America and South Korea are resolved, in the spirit of mutual agree with of the Panmunjom Announcement, there’s a need for flexible amendment on army pressure and thoroughly evaluate the U.S.-South Korea joint coaching,” he mentioned.

    Moon’s remarks come after Trump defined the workouts as “very provocative” warfare video games which might be “enormously dear.”

    “We save a fortune through not doing battle video games, as lengthy as we’re negotiating in just right faith — which both sides are!” Trump tweeted Wednesday.

    The South Korean president quickly ruled out the possibility the alliance with the America is changing.

    “We should take care of our unshaken defense posture, primarily based at the alliance,” Moon said.

    In Seoul on Thursday, Pompeo informed South Korean journalists the objective is to complete top denuclearization measures by 2020. U.N. sanctions will remain till there’s proof North Korea has totally denuclearized, The Korea Occasions suggested Thursday.

    Pompeo didn’t cope with North Korea’s human rights report in his remarks.

    Native paper Munhwa Ilbo said lack of momentum in Seoul on human rights may be accountable for the closure of a government-led North Korea Human Rights Foundation, greater than years after a North Korean human rights invoice was once signed into legislation.

  • Trump-Kim summit raises new questions over South Korean role

    When South Korea’s president shuttled between North Korea and the United States to broker their first-ever summit, he faced both praise and criticism over whether he was a peace-making mediator or was

    SINGAPORE (AP) – When South Korea’s president shuttled between North Korea and the United States to broker their first-ever summit, he faced both praise and criticism over whether he was a peace-making mediator or was helping North Korea find ways to weaken U.S.-led economic sanctions.

    A day after President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held their summit in Singapore, is it clearer whether Moon Jae-in played a positive or negative role? A quick answer: Probably not.

    Assessments of Moon’s diplomacy have become more divisive and complex, with Trump criticized in both South Korea and the U.S. for the concessions he made to North Korea, while others believe the summit will successfully prolong the current mood of detente.

    Meeting for about five hours, Trump and Kim exchanged an historic handshake, took a short stroll together, patted each other’s backs and signed a summit agreement. Trump promised to provide security guarantees to the North and suspend joint military drills with the South as long as negotiations with the North continue in “good faith.” Kim, in return, agreed to work toward a vague “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

    Those moves were unthinkable even several months ago, when the two unpredictable leaders threatened to nuke each other and traded a series of harsh personal insults.

    Moon issued a statement after the summit calling it a “huge step forward” toward peace that “helped break down the last remaining Cold War legacy on Earth.”

    He acknowledged that many difficulties are likely to lie ahead but vowed to work together with the U.S., North Korea and others to bring lasting peace to the Korean Peninsula.

    “We will never go back to the past again and never give up on this bold journey. History is a record of people who take action and rise to a challenge,” he said.

    But conservatives in South Korea slammed the summit, saying it failed to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. They said both Trump and Moon should be blamed for not specifying steps and deadlines for North Korea’s nuclear disarmament, allowing it time to perfect its weapons program.

    “High expectations were met by low results,” said Nam Sung-wook, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Korea University. “Moon, and then Trump, were quick to bite on North Korea’s invitation for talks. When Trump realized there wasn’t going to be anything substantial in return, it was impossible for him to back out because he had already gone too far.”

    U.S. officials had worked hard to get North Korea to agree to “complete, verifiable and irreversible” disarmament, and said they would not offer any major concessions until it took meaningful steps. Despite those efforts, Trump announced after the summit that he had agreed to suspend U.S. military drills with South Korea, something North Korea has long demanded.

    On Wednesday, North Korean state media said Trump had also agreed to the North’s desire for a step-by-step disarmament process with corresponding U.S. concessions at each step, rather than immediate disarmament as the U.S. had initially sought.

    Trump’s agreement to suspend the military drills apparently came without prior consultation with South Korea, baffling many who believe the U.S.-South Korea alliance, forged in blood during the 1950-53 Korean War, should remain strong throughout the push for a negotiated end to the nuclear tensions.

    “Why did South Korea and the U.S. form an alliance and stage military drills before the nuclear crisis flared? It’s because North Korea has been belligerent,” said Kim Taewoo, former president of the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. He said cancellation of the drills “is really a bad idea … and (Trump) betrayed our people.”

    Asked to respond to Trump’s decision, Moon spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said the allies must consider a “variety of ways to further facilitate dialogue” during the nuclear negotiations. He said South Korea is still trying to figure out the exact meaning and intent of Trump’s comments.

    Since taking office in May last year, Moon, a son of North Korean refugees, has sought to take the lead in diplomatic efforts to end the North Korean nuclear standoff, which had been dominated by world powers including the U.S. and China.

    Provocative nuclear and missile tests by North Korea last year initially gave Moon little diplomatic room to maneuver. But he kept trying to reach out to North Korea, and eventually found a role as a mediator after Kim offered in January to send a delegation to the South Korean Winter Olympics.

    After successful cooperation at the Olympics, Moon sent special envoys to North Korea who later traveled to Washington with Kim’s proposal for a summit with Trump. Moon held talks with Kim in April at which Kim agreed to work toward “complete denuclearization.” He met Kim again in May when Trump said he was withdrawing from the planned summit with Kim – a decision Trump quickly reversed.

    Experts now expect a temporary peace to continue since North Korea has probably won what it wanted from Tuesday’s summit and Trump is unlikely to back down from summit deals that he wants to portray as a diplomatic triumph.

    Analyst Hong Min at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification said critics of the joint statement signed by Trump and Kim are missing a bigger point.

    He said it’s meaningful in itself that the leaders of the United States and North Korea met, talked and signed an agreement that will carry more weight and significance than any pact previously made between the wartime foes. The agreement’s aspirational language on denuclearization was a “strategic decision” to reduce pressure on both sides and keep the process going, Hong said.

    Trump and Kim agreed that their countries will quickly engage in follow-up talks led by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a “relevant high-level” North Korean official.

    Bong Youngshik, a professor at Seoul’s Yonsei University, said it’s too early to predict how Trump’s cancellation of the military drills will play out in future nuclear negotiations. He said North Korea is likely to consider Trump’s decision a temporary measure while it remains in negotiations with Washington.

    Moon may not face any immediate serious political repercussions at home since North Korea will likely take gradual steps toward disarmament to prevent others from thinking it reneged on its pledge. But if Trump seeks re-election in 2020, his government is likely to apply more pressure on North Korea to make substantial progress in denuclearization, which could bring the nuclear issue to another critical point, said Shin Beomchul of Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

    ___

    Kim Tong-hyung reported from Seoul, South Korea.

  • Donald Trump to meet South Korean president amid uncertainty over Kim Jong-un summit

    President Trump will host South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House next week for a meeting expected to center on clarifying expectations for an upcoming summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong

    President Trump will host South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House next week for a meeting expected to center on clarifying and aligning the expectations that Washington and Seoul have for Mr. Trump’s upcoming summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.

    The Moon visit Tuesday comes amid uncertainty over the planned June 12 summit after North Korea threatened this week to pull out amid anger over National Security Advisor John R. Bolton’s claims that Washington seeks a quick, verifiable, “Libya model” denuclearization from Pyongyang.

    President Trump walked back Mr. Bolton’s assertions Thursday, telling reporters “the Libyan model isn’t a model that we have at all when we’re thinking of North Korea,” and stressing that if Mr. Kim is serious about abandoning his nuclear program, Washington will provide the North Korean leader’s regime with “protections.”

    While those comments hang in the backdrop, national security sources say the White House is scrambling behind-the-scenes to nail down exactly what its expectations are for the highly-anticipated summit with Mr. Kim in Singapore.

    That’s where President Moon comes in, says Hak-Soon Paik, the head North Korea analyst at the Sejong Institute, a top South Korean think tank.

    Mr. Paik, who’s in Washington ahead of Mr. Moon’s visit to the White House, says it “comes at an opportune moment” for both South Korea and the U.S.

    “On the U.S. side, the administration has a chance to hear directly from the South Korean president what his views toward what Mr. Trump’s expectations should be for the upcoming summit with Kim,” Mr. Paik told The Washington Times on Friday.

    “For the South Korean side,” he said, “this is a moment to advise Mr. Trump directly on Seoul’s view of what would or would not amount to a successful [summit].”

    The Moon visit comes roughly a month after Mr. Trump held a similar meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to soak in his perspective on how a one-on-one with Mr. Kim should play out.

    A top aid to Mr. Abe said at the time that the Japanese premier told Mr. Trump to demand Mr. Kim meet a hard deadline of 2020 to permanently surrender his nuclear programs and that no sanctions relief for Pyongyang should be granted until the deadline is met.

    Katsuyuki Kawai, the special adviser for foreign affairs to Mr. Abe from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Mr. Abe also pressed Mr. Trump to realize “America is in a stronger position than Chairman Kim” and that North Korean denuclearization has to occur before Mr. Trump faces a potentially difficult re-election campaign in just two years.

    Sources close to Mr. Moon have told The Times the South Korean president is likely to offer similar advice next week, with particular emphasis on the timeline the administration should demand for denuclearization.

    One source said Mr. Moon will attempt to make the case that at least a year, if not considerably longer, will be needed in order for any kind of successful, verifiable denuclearization to occur.

  • Kim Jong-un summit threatened by Trump’s bid to end Iran nuclear deal

    President Trump’s determination to undermine the Iran nuclear deal could undercut his hopes for quick success in the upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, many in South Korea fear.

    SEOUL — President Trump’s determination to undermine the Iran nuclear deal could undercut his hopes for quick success in the upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, many in South Korea fear.

    Former high-level South Korean officials and analysts say Mr. Kim will be far less likely to abandon his nuclear and missile programs if the U.S. pulls out of the 2015 multilateral agreement meant to curb Tehran’s nuclear programs in exchange for relief from international economic sanctions.

    Mr. Kim plans a one-on-one summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 27 and is set to meet Mr. Trump next month or in early June at a still-to-be-determined location. The Trump administration has said the goal of the high-risk meeting will be to get the North to agree to eventually give up its nuclear programs.

    But the prospect of a U.S. pullout from the Iran deal casts a shadow over the talks.

    “It will have a very negative influence on North Korea’s decision of whether or not to come out with a strong denuclearization statement or to make any serious concessions during a summit with President Trump,” said Paik Hak-soon, a top North Korea analyst with the Sejong Institute think tank in the South.

    The Iran agreement and the Korean Peninsula talks “are quite closely connected in the perception of the North Korean leadership,” Mr. Paik said in an interview. “Trashing the Iran deal will have a very souring effect.”

    Many here see Mr. Trump’s appointment of John R. Bolton as his national security adviser, a sharp critic of the Obama administration’s Iran deal and a past proponent of regime change in Iran, as an indication that Washington is bent on pulling fully out of the accord.

    Under the Iran deal’s terms, U.S., China, Russia, Britain and France gave billions of dollars in sanctions relief to Iran in exchange for sharp curbs and intrusive inspections of Tehran’s nuclear programs.

    Other signatories to the deal say they want to preserve it, but Iranian officials have said they will not be bound by the nuclear restrictions if the U.S. says it no longer is part of the agreement.

    Mr. Trump decertified the Iran deal as in the U.S. national interest in October — a mainly rhetorical step that sets the stage for a full withdrawal. Critics of the agreement say Iran has violated the letter and the spirit of the deal by testing a string of long-range ballistic missiles and continuing to threaten Israel and U.S. Sunni Arab allies in the region through a network of proxy forces such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

    The president has issued an ultimatum to Britain, France and Germany. If they don’t join Washington in fixing “terrible flaws” in the deal, Mr. Trump said, he will move to unilaterally reimpose U.S. sanctions on Iran by May 12, the next deadline for him to renew sanctions relief that Washington has been giving Iran for the past three years. There has been little indication of progress on a revised deal with exactly a month to go.

    State Department Policy Planning Director Brian Hook told reporters last month that the goal is to get the Europeans to agree to collective new sanctions against Iran if it tests long-range missiles or evades inspections of its remaining nuclear facilities.

    Echoes across Asia

    But the Iran debate is having clear echoes on the other side of Asia as Mr. Trump pursues his “deal on the de-nuking of North Korea.”

    “I see a very close correlation with the Iran agreement, and I am concerned that if the agreement is not [upheld], it will have an impact on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula,” said retired South Korean Army Lt. Gen. Chun In-bum, an analyst on the North Korean threat.

    “It’s going to make the negotiations between the United States and North Korea more difficult,” said Jun Bong-geun, the head of security and unification studies at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul. “North Korea may want more assurances from Washington, and they may want to hide more.

    “It might send a message that if changing administrations can change a deal, what does that mean for [Pyongyang]? It will probably make it harder for the North Koreans to trust a deal with the U.S.,” Gen. Chun said in an interview.

    The Moon government has remained mum on the Iran issue, but one former official told The Times that there “definitely is concern” inside the administration.

    Given the skepticism Mr. Trump and his advisers have about Iran’s compliance, the bar may be even higher for Mr. Kim. U.S. security officials say North Korea has routinely violated international accords meant to stop it from obtaining nuclear weapons and the missiles to hit the U.S. and its East Asian allies.

    The Trump administration has indicated that denuclearization — not just a declaration by Pyongyang but verifiable abandonment of the nuclear program — is a precondition for negotiations toward lifting sanctions on North Korea.

    Uncertainty looms, however, over the administration’s game plan for the Trump-Kim summit.

    Just days after he was appointed as national security adviser last month, Mr. Bolton told Radio Free Asia that the administration should follow the “Libyan Model” with North Korea. The George W. Bush administration struck a relatively quick deal in December 2003 with Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to give up his nuclear materials in exchange for sanctions relief and the promise of normalized relations with the West.

    But South Korean sources say the mention of Libya likely angered Pyongyang, which has long pointed to Gadhafi’s death at the hands of U.S.-backed rebels during the 2011 Arab Spring as an example of why a smaller state should never surrender its nuclear arsenal.

    “We all know the Gadhafi case is something the North Koreans point to repeatedly to demonstrate that their behavior will not be decided by anybody, let alone by the United States, the way Gadhafi’s was,” said Mr. Paik. “And I think you can compare the collapse of the Iran deal, if America pulls out of it, to the Gadhafi case.”

    If Mr. Trump keeps the U.S. in the Iran deal, however, “the North Koreans could more comfortably come to the table with the United States.”

    “Bolton clearly has a very narrow view of the Libya case,” said the former official, who spoke on background with The Times, arguing that the U.S.-Libya detente in 2006 depended heavily on the involvement of Britain as an intermediary and that no such intermediary exists vis-a-vis the potential U.S.-North Korean negotiations.

    The uncertainty, many here say, means that the fate of any Trump-Kim summit will depend heavily on what comes from a summit between Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon.

    Mr. Paik believes one of Mr. Moon’s goals may be to get such a statement from Mr. Kim on denuclearization. At a minimum, he said, Mr. Moon is “trying to persuade Kim Jong-un with maximum effort to keep his commitment to denuclearize when he comes to the U.S.-North Korea summit talks.”

  • Donald Trump to meet with Kim Jong-un in May

    President Trump has agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by May for historic talks on denuclearization, a senior South Korean official announced Thursday night.

    President Trump has agreed to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by May for historic talks on denuclearization, a senior South Korean official announced Thursday night.

    South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong told reporters at the White House that Mr. Kim conveyed the invitation for a meeting with Mr. Trump after breakthrough talks this week between the North and South in Pyongyang.

    Mr. Trump called the development “great progress” but vowed that the U.S. would not lift sanctions on North Korea while diplomacy is under way.

    Mr. Chung said the North Korean leader “expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible.”

    South Korean President Moon Jae-in already had been scheduled to meet with the North Korean leader at a summit in April at the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas. Mr. Chung is part of a South Korean delegation visiting Washington following the talks this week in Pyongyang.

    Mr. Chung said the North Korean leader is “committed to denuclearization” and that he pledged to refrain from any further nuclear weapons or ballistic missile tests. He said Mr. Kim also has accepted that the U.S. and South Korea will proceed with “routine” military exercises scheduled for next month.

    “I explained to President Trump that his leadership and his maximum pressure policy, together with international solidarity, brought us to this juncture,” Mr. Chung said, adding that he expressed Mr. Moon’s “personal gratitude” for Mr. Trump’s leadership on confronting Pyongyang.

    Mr. Trump tweeted Thursday night about the sudden announcement: “Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze. Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time. Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached. Meeting being planned!”

    There has never been a face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea. A senior administration official said Mr. Kim conveyed the message by word of mouth through the South Koreans that he wants to meet with Mr. Trump “as quickly as possible.”

    The South Korean officials briefed Mr. Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday, with National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary James Mattis, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and other U.S. officials present.

    The official said Mr. Trump agreed to meet with Mr. Kim “in a matter of a couple of months.”

    While the U.S. has often made concessions to North Korea in return for lower-level talks, the official said that keeping sanctions in place “is what differentiates the president’s policy from the policies of the past.”

    “President Trump has been very clear from the beginning that he is not prepared to reward North Korea in exchange for talks,” the aide said.

    White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that Mr. Trump will meet with Mr. Kim “at a place and time to be determined.”

    “We look forward to the denuclearization of North Korea. In the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain,” she said.

    Mrs. Sanders said the president “greatly appreciates the nice words of the South Korean delegation and President Moon.”

    Mr. McMaster is to brief U.N. Security Council envoys on North Korea on Monday, Reuters reported.

    As the prospect of direct Trump-Kim talks has risen, analysts and U.S. intelligence officials have noted that the North Korean dictator, in his mid-30s, has had hardly any interactions with high-profile Americans. The exception is multiple meetings in recent years with former basketball star Dennis Rodman.

    It’s a factor that has made it hard for U.S. intelligence to predict how Mr. Kim might behave in a meeting with Mr. Trump and created a challenge for officials tasked with briefing the president on what to expect.

    Some analysts warned Thursday night that the risks remain incredibly high that hopes for diplomacy could fizzle on both the U.S. and North Korean side.

    “We’d expect such an unprecedented meeting to happen after some concrete deliverables were in hand, not before,” said Suzanne DiMaggio, a senior fellow with the New America think tank in Washington.

    While Ms. DiMaggio said that if the developments evolve into “a process for serious, sustained negotiations,” then Mr. Trump’s willingness to embrace North Korea’s reported offer will turn out to be a “positive move.”

    “But it will have to be managed very carefully with a great deal of preparatory work,” she told The Times on Thursday night. “Otherwise, it runs the risk of being more spectacle than substance. Right now, Kim Jong-un is setting the agenda and the pace, and the Trump administration is reacting.”

    “The administration needs to move quickly to change this dynamic,” Ms. DiMaggio said.

    Analysts have also warned that there has yet to be an official offer for talks directly from the Kim regime — that all of the latest news developments on the situation have come through the South Korean government.

    As of early Friday, Korean time, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency had not mentioned the events in Washington.

    “There seems to be no direct message from North Korea to the U.S. government,” Michael Pillsbury, a Mandarin-speaking Pentagon consultant and head of Chinese strategy at the Hudson Institute in Washington, noted on Wednesday.

    “This is all being filtered through the South Korean government,” said Mr. Pillsbury, adding that Chinese officials, who are generally regarded to be far more in touch than anyone else with goings-on in Pyongyang, have also been unsure about the South Korean claims of Mr. Kim’s eagerness to talk with Mr. Trump.

    The Chinese government has yet to make an official statement on the situation, and the de facto newspaper of the ruling Communist Party in Beijing went so far as to question whether Mr. Kim’s offer to Mr. Trump really happened.

    “North Korea still has not confirmed the South’s version of events,” stated an editorial in the Global Times, which also pointed out that Pyongyang’s official state newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, had asserted in its editorial that the Kim regime plans to proceed with the “advance” of the nation’s “nuclear weaponry.”

    Earlier Thursday, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson played down hopes for a breakthrough on North Korea’s nuclear program, saying the U.S. is a long way from negotiations after the country’s leader offered to give up his weapons in exchange for security guarantees.

    “We’re a long way from negotiations; we just need to be very clear-eyed and realistic about it,” Mr. Tillerson said during a stop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

    Mr. Moon’s office said Tuesday that the North had expressed a “willingness to hold a heartfelt dialogue with the United States on the issues of denuclearization” and “made it clear that while dialogue is continuing, it will not attempt any strategic provocations, such as nuclear and ballistic missile tests.”

    China barely reacted to word of a possible thawing of relations.

    U.S. officials believe that sanctions against North Korea are beginning to sting the communist country, which has staged multiple nuclear and ballistic missile tests in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

    Administration officials also have repeatedly pointed out that Mr. Kim has gone through the motions of talks with the U.S. previously, all the while continuing to refine his weapons programs.

    Rep. Edward R. Royce, California Republican and House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said Mr. Kim’s desire for talks “shows sanctions the administration has implemented are starting to work.”

    “We can pursue more diplomacy as we keep applying pressure ounce by ounce,” Mr. Royce said. “Remember, North Korean regimes have repeatedly used talks and empty promises to extract concessions and buy time. North Korea uses this to advance its nuclear and missile programs. We’ve got to break this cycle.”

    Part of what made the announcement so unexpected is that from the start of his presidency, Mr. Trump has determined to take a more aggressive approach to North Korea than his predecessors.

    He has taunted Mr. Kim on Twitter as “Little Rocket Man” and vowed last year that Pyongyang would be met with “fire and fury” if Mr. Kim followed through on threats to attack the U.S. mainland or its territories. Mr. Trump also has pressed China to adhere to harsh economic sanctions.

    That history prompted one key Democrat to warn the U.S. president about diplomacy by Twitter.

    Mr. Trump needs to “abandon his penchant for unscripted remarks and bombastic rhetoric to avoid derailing this significant opportunity for progress,” said Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the East Asia panel of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

    “And if the talks between the two leaders do not go well, it is not an excuse to justify military action for a situation that has no military solution,” Mr. Markey said.

    Retired Rear Adm. John Kirby, who was a spokesman for the Pentagon and State Department in the Obama administration, said on CNN. “It certainly does feel like a different moment.”

    He said Mr. Trump deserves credit for the announcement, though he also cited Seoul, saying Mr. Moon may be the most eager South Korean leader ever to produce a breakthrough with the North.

    Kevin Martin, president of Peace Action, said Mr. Kim’s reported commitment not to test nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles during diplomacy “is excellent news, as is President Trump accepting Kim’s invitation to meet in person for the first time.”

    “North Korea is putting virtually all topics of concerns on the table,” Mr. Martin said. “Trump now has the opportunity to achieve what no president has been able to achieve in seven decades of U.S.-North Korea relations: make real strides towards lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.”

    • Guy Taylor contributed to this article.