President Donald Trump said Monday he would be willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un \u201cunder the right circumstances\u201d to defuse tensions over North Korea\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honored to do it,\u201d Trump told Bloomberg News in an interview Monday. \u201cIf it\u2019s under the, again, under the right circumstances. But I would do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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No sitting US president has ever met with the leader of North Korea while in power, and the idea is extremely controversial.<\/p>\n
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White House press secretary Sean Spicer, however, said later on Monday that the US would first need to see changes in North Korean behavior before a potential sit-down.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve got to see their provocative behavior ratcheted down immediately,\u201d Spicer said. \u201cClearly, the conditions are not there right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Spicer also offered an explanation for Trump\u2019s view, expressed to CBS, that Kim is a \u201csmart cookie.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe assumed power at a young age when his father passed,\u201d Spicer said. \u201cThere was a lot of potential threats that could have come his way. He\u2019s managed to lead a country forward, despite the concerns that we and so many people have. He is a young person to be leading a country with nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Speaking Tuesday, a Chinese official said \u201cthe only feasible way to a denuclearized Korean peninsula as well as peace and stability there is through dialogue and construction.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is also the only correct choice,\u201d Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, calling on all sides to \u201cfind a breakthrough in the resumption of peace talks as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Trump\u2019s comment about meeting Kim comes as tensions have risen in recent months between the US and North Korea as Pyongyang has sought to advance its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and Washington has made a show of force in the region to deter their use.<\/p>\n
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The US directed an aircraft carrier-led strike group to the region as well as deployed a new anti-ballistic missile system to South Korea.<\/p>\n
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CIA Director Mike Pompeo arrived in Seoul over the weekend plans to attend internal meetings with US Forces Korea and embassy staff, according to Daniel Turnbull, a spokesperson for the US Embassy.<\/p>\n
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Despite pivotal elections in South Korea next week, Pompeo has no plans to meet with any of the presidential candidates. Leading candidates have promised a new era of relations with Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
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Trump said during the presidential campaign that he would be willing to meet with Kim Jong Un, explaining in June that \u201cthere\u2019s a 10% or 20% chance that I can talk him out of those damn nukes \u2018cause who the hell wants him to have nukes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019ll speak to anybody,\u201d Trump said then.<\/p>\n
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His comments received criticism from both sides of the aisle at the time, and since Trump has become president, top officials in his administration have taken a more equivocal position on the issue.<\/p>\n
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In the Bloomberg interview, Trump gave a nod to his willingness to take an unconventional approach.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMost political people would never say that,\u201d he noted. \u201cBut I\u2019m telling you under the right circumstances I would meet with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The North Korean nuclear issue has quickly become one of the top national security concerns for the Trump administration and administration officials have repeatedly stressed the increasing urgency of the situation. Trump has focused on finding a diplomatic solution to the North Korean issue — working increasingly closely with China — but has also refused to rule out a military solution to the problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Donald Trump said Monday he would be willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “under the right circumstances” to defuse tensions over North Korea’s nuclear program. “If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honored to do it,” Trump told Bloomberg News in an interview Monday. “If it’s under the, again, under the right circumstances. But I would do that.” No sitting US president has ever met with the leader of North Korea while in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6477,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions\/6477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}