Announcing North Korea Summit Back On, Trump Says Letter From Kim He "Didn't Open" Is "Very Interesting"

US President Donald Trump stands with Kim Yong Chol, former North Korean military intelligence chief and one of leader Kim Jong Un's closest aides, on the South Lawn of the White House on June 1, 2018 in Washington, DC. Both Trump and Kim Yong Chol are trying to salvage a recently canceled historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un scheduled for June 12. (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

Announcing North Korea Summit Back On, Trump Says Letter From Kim He "Didn't Open" Is "Very Interesting"

Despite latest bizarre behavior from Trump, peace advocates call announcement "good news for diplomacy"

President Donald Trump's chaotic brand of internation diplomacy was back on display Friday afternoon as he announced--following an Oval Office meeting with a high-ranking North Korean official--that a summit he cancelled earlier this month between the two countries is now back on track.

"We'll be meeting June 12 in Singapore. You people will have to be in Singapore," Trump told reporters at the White House after emerging from a more than hour-long meeting with North Korea's Kim Yong Chol, a chief negotiator and top aide to the nation's leader Kim Jong-Un.

Watch:

The North Korean diplomat, who had previously met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other State Department officials on Thursday, and during Friday's meeting at the White House hand-delivered a letter from Kim that was addressed to Trump.

But Trump said some very strange things, in fact, about the letter from Kim during his interaction with the reporters.

At first Trump described the letter as "very interesting" and asked how much anyone in the scrum might offer to pay to see its contents:

But just minutes later he very clearly admits to the same group of reporters that he has not even opened the letter yet:

As astute observers pointed out:

Despite Trump's ongoing and bizarre behavior when it comes to diplomacy with North Korea, anti-war voices and experts on the Korean peninsula voiced support for the announcement that the talks appeared to be back on track.

Join Us: News for people demanding a better world


Common Dreams is powered by optimists who believe in the power of informed and engaged citizens to ignite and enact change to make the world a better place.

We're hundreds of thousands strong, but every single supporter makes the difference.

Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. Join with us today!

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.