Speaking at the White House a week before the hotly anticipated Hanoi
Summit with Kim Jong Un, President Trump said that he expects there to
be more meetings scheduled after this upcoming summit.
“I don’t think this will be the last meeting by any chance,”
Trump said. He added that he’d like to ease sanctions on North Korea,
but would need to see “meaningful” progress from them first before
making any changes.
While this isn’t much of a commitment, it is a huge departure from his
long-standing position that North Korea must unconditionally meet all US
expectations, and that the US will not offer any concessions until
after North Korea has done everything.
This has been a major problem, with North Korea noticing that everything
they’ve done so far has resulted in even more US sanctions and
pressure, and no sign that the US is going to make even minor moves for
many years. If Trump is backing off of that, this may be an opening to
get negotiations going again.
Kim won’t mind; he doesn’t get out much.
“I don’t think this will be the last meeting by any chance,” Trump said. He added that he’d like to ease sanctions on North Korea, but would need to see “meaningful” progress from them first before making any changes.
“While this isn’t much of a commitment, it is a huge departure from his long-standing position that North Korea must unconditionally meet all US expectations, and that the US will not offer any concessions until after North Korea has done everything”.
Actually it sounds pretty much the same as what has been coming out of the white house since the last meeting. What does anyone think “meaningful” means if not a kinder way of saying we want everything up front?