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.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
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.
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.