Surprise Trump-Kim Meeting Aims to Restart Stalled Nuclear Talks

In the four months since the Hanoi summit ended in failure, very little has happened between the US and North Korea, and there has been a lot of pessimism about the future of the nuclear talks coming from both sides.

This weekend, things changed drastically, as President Trump suggested, in the wake of the G-20 meeting, that he could maybe stop by the Korean demilitarized zone to meet with Kim Jong Un. This seemed really unlikely on the surface, as previous meetings took months to piece together. Yet it happened, and in an historic first, President Trump crossed the border into North Korea during the meeting at Panmunjom.

One successful meeting later, and the US and North Korea have agreed to resume nuclear talks, and there seems to be a strong sense Trump’s meeting has restored confidence within North Korea.

Having set foot into North Korea, Trump is now suggesting Kim will be invited to visit the US next, and that no longer seems like such a remote possibility either. With Trump making the first move, Kim clearly could justify going to the US next time.

After months of pessimism, North Korea’s state media is now extremely positive about the Trump-Kim interaction. They are suggesting that this could be the breakthrough to a deal on the Korean denuclearization, and importing bilateral relationships.

South Korean officials were a bit mixed on the meeting, with some viewing the meeting as lacking substance. On the other hand, some South Korean officials saw this meeting as a real sign of hope after months of negativity, a potentially very positive move.