{"id":56117,"date":"2018-03-12T10:49:02","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T05:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=56117"},"modified":"2022-02-26T13:47:34","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T08:47:34","slug":"us-officials-defend-trump-kim-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=56117","title":{"rendered":"US officials defend Trump-Kim meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON March 12 (TNS):<\/strong> U.S. officials on Sunday defended President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying the move was not just for show and not a gift to Pyongyang.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump isn\u2019t doing this for theater. He\u2019s going to solve a problem,\u201d said Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo on the \u201cFox News Sunday\u201d program.<\/p>\n

The United States expects North Korea to halt all nuclear and missile testing in advance of any meeting, Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Sunday news shows.<\/p>\n

The goal of the meeting remains denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, something Kim has agreed to discuss, they said. Pompeo said U.S. military exercises in the region would continue in the lead-up to the talks.<\/p>\n

The Republican president agreed on Thursday to accept an invitation from the North Korean leader to meet by May after months of escalating tensions over Pyongyang\u2019s advancing nuclear and missile programs.<\/p>\n

Trump would become the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a leader of the reclusive country. The two men would face each other after a public volley of insults, with Trump calling Kim \u201cLittle Rocket Man\u201d and Kim referring to Trump as a \u201cdotard.\u201d<\/p>\n

No venue or date for the meeting has been determined, but Trump\u2019s prompt acceptance set off a flurry of activity.The South Korean officials who carried Kim\u2019s invitation to Washington will split up to visit the leaders of China and Japan this week to update them on the talks, a South Korean presidential official said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

China, North Korea\u2019s main ally, has encouraged dialogue over Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear program, and its state media on Saturday credited Beijing for helping ease tensions.
buy cialis pack online healingtohappy.com\/wp-content\/languages\/en\/cialis-pack.html<\/a> no prescription
\n<\/p>\n

\u201cChina continues to be helpful!\u201d Trump tweeted on Saturday.<\/p>\n

North Korea\u2019s leaders have sought a face-to-face meeting with a U.S. president for decades, but have been rebuffed over human rights concerns as well as the nuclear ambitions.<\/p>\n

U.S. student Otto Warmbier died last summer shortly after his release from a 17-month detention. Three Americans remain detained in North Korea.<\/p>\n

Many Democrats as well as Trump\u2019s fellow Republicans said the United States should have demanded concessions before granting North Korea a meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore they get that kind of prize, we should insist that they make some real changes, verifiable changes to their programs,\u201d Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren said on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warren said she was worried the North would \u201ctake advantage\u201d of Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cEYES WIDE OPEN\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pompeo and Mnuchin said the United States would make no concessions and would keep the pressure on North Korea by maintaining economic sanctions and a strong U.S. defense posture before the meeting. They also dismissed criticism that Trump\u2019s decision to meet elevated the North Korean leader on an international stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis administration has its eyes wide open, and the whole time this conversation takes place the pressure will continue to mount on North Korea,\u201d Pompeo said on CBS\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United States slapped sanctions on individuals and groups in North Korea in October over \u201cflagrant\u201d human rights abuses and added sanctions in February.<\/p>\n

Six Republican senators last week sent a letter asking Trump to share his plan to keep up pressure on \u201cthis heinous regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of them, Republican Cory Gardner, told CBS on Sunday it was important to see concrete steps from North Korea before the meeting. \u201cAfter this meeting, there\u2019s going to be very little left of that diplomatic runway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mnuchin addressed criticism that Trump has not used more diplomacy to contain Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear ambitions. \u201cSo the president is going to sit down and see if he can cut a deal,\u201d he said on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prospect of doing something no American president has done – especially on such an intractable geopolitical problem – was irresistible to Trump, Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer said on CNN\u2019s \u201cFareed Zakaria GPS.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s the first. It\u2019s incredible television. Clearly Trump wants to make this happen,\u201d Bremmer said. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s going to happen.\u201d Courtesy Reuters<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON March 12 (TNS): U.S. officials on Sunday defended President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying the move was not just for show and not a gift to Pyongyang. \u201cPresident Trump isn\u2019t doing this for theater. He\u2019s going to solve a problem,\u201d said Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,303],"tags":[932,304],"class_list":["post-56117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-washington","tag-international","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56117"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103880,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56117\/revisions\/103880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}