SINGAPORE — President Trump will make history as he greets North Korea’s reclusive ruler Tuesday for a high-stakes summit on the country’s nuclear program, a made-for-TV moment that could be the most consequential test yet of the president’s self-proclaimed negotiating expertise.
The American president, who has long taken pride in his unpredictability, is scheduled to meet one-on-one with North Korea’s ruthless 30-something leader Kim Jong Un at 9 a.m. Tuesday local time to determine whether the enemy countries can broker a peace deal and place Pyongyang on a viable path toward disarmament.
“I’ll be on a mission of peace,” Trump told reporters in Canada on Saturday. “We really think that North Korea will be a tremendous place in a very short period of time. They’re really working well with us.”
Despite oozing optimism ahead of the summit, Trump has repeatedly warned his North Korean counterpart he will not be taken for a fool. He has described their meeting as “a one-time shot” for Kim to commit to the irreversible dismantlement of his nuclear weapons program, and vowed to “walk away” from the table if he senses at any moment the authoritarian leader is insincere.
“He feels this is like a New York City real estate deal where he can go in and his negotiating acumen may allow him to get what no other U.S. president has ever been able to get,” said Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow on Korean affairs at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The president expects to know “within the first minute” if Kim is genuinely interested in relinquishing his weapons program as a step toward reintegration with the international community. “That’s what I do,” Trump explained Saturday, touting what he feels is his innate ability to read people no matter what setting they’re in.
“It’s unknown territory in the truest sense, but I really feel confident,” he said.
Administration officials who have spent months laying the groundwork for top-level discussions between the U.S. and North Korea admitted this week that Trump’s proclivity for unconventional actions makes the outcome of Tuesday’s summit difficult to predict. One person involved in planning described the event as “a crapshoot,” where “anything and everything is possible.”
Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis have tempered expectations ahead of the summit, casting it as a “getting-to-know-you” session for the president and Kim.
“That’s largely driven by the realization of how far North Korea is from the U.S. concept of denuclearization,” Klingner said. “Rather than the breakthrough successes the White House had seemed to be expecting before, it now seems like they’re defining success as developing a relationship with Kim Jong Un.”
The administration has previously defined success as immediate “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula following Trump’s meeting with Kim, who has relied on his country’s weapons development system to project strength amid crippling economic and humanitarian conditions back home.
However, convincing the ambitious dictator to make such a sizable concession up front is seen by most national security analysts as a nearly impossible task, unless the U.S. offers some assurances in return. U.S. officials have reportedly discussed establishing formal diplomatic ties with North Korea, including the opening of an embassy in Pyongyang, as one step that could be taken, while gradual sanctions relief and economic aid for the country have also been floated.
Trump has also said he is “absolutely” open to signing a peace treaty to end war between the two Koreas, though such a move would require the cooperation of Congress and the Chinese. The three-year Korean War ended with an armistice agreement in 1953 and has never been formally brought to a close. The South Korean government has said it would welcome any steps toward a peace treaty that come about during the U.S.-North Korea summit.
One of the most recent officials to meet with North Korean and U.S. representatives, Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, told reporters on Saturday he saw a sincere desire for a successful summit from both sides.
“I see a desire, a willingness to escape the constraints that have applied for the last seven decades — so with goodwill and creativity, let’s see what they come up with,” he said.
Kim, who arrived in Singapore via an Air China flight on Sunday, is scheduled to depart at 2 p.m. Tuesday evening, according to North Korea’s state-run media operation, which first informed residents of the hermit kingdom on Monday that their leader had left the country the previous day to meet with his U.S. counterpart. However, Trump has hinted that Kim’s departure time could change if their initial meeting goes smoothly and talks spill into late Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday.
Trump will dispatch his top diplomat to South Korea and China immediately following the summit’s conclusion to brief both countries regardless of the outcome. The State Department has said Pompeo’s trip to Seoul and Beijing demonstrates the administration’s “focus on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and commitment to our alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region.”
As for next steps in the event that Kim refuses to commit to denuclearize, Trump has said he is prepared to slap “hundreds of new sanctions” against Pyongyang to maximize pressure until North Korea returns to the table. He has also floated possible military action if the isolated country returns to provocations and threats of nuclear war.
“I have spoken to South Korea and Japan and they are not only ready should foolish or reckless acts be taken by North Korea, but they are willing to shoulder much of the cost of any financial burden — any of the costs associated by the United States in operations, if such an unfortunate situation is forced upon us,” Trump said late last month.
