The Trump administration was hoping to quietly resume nuclear-disarmament talks with North Koreans at a major Asian summit this week, but Pyongyang’s officials were a no-show.
The Trump administration was hoping to quietly resume nuclear-disarmament talks with North Koreans at a major Asian summit here this week. But Pyongyang’s officials were a no-show, once again snubbing U.S. envoys and casting fresh doubts about President Trump’s initiative to persuade Kim Jong Un to shed his ample nuclear arsenal.
In addition to skipping the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations conference, or ASEAN, North Korea launched two ballistic missile tests during the summit. While such tests are not banned as part of any nuclear agreement, many observers assessed that the North Korean leader was reminding the world of his military capabilities.Trump, following an unprecedented encounter with Kim in June in the demilitarized zone dividing North Korea and South Korea, said he was confident talks would resume soon.
Attempting to make a deal with Kim is arguably Trump’s largest foreign policy gamble. Despite his proclamations of an excellent relationship with Kim and a diminished nuclear threat from the country, North Korea has stuck to what veteran diplomats call its traditional playbook of missed meetings, broken pledges and feints for time.Trump, however, seeks to portray his dealings with North Korea as a triumph as he heads into his reelection campaign.
It “didn’t keep North Korea from being a major topic of discussion,” a senior State Department official told a small group of reporters in Bangkok. “If anything, the absence of North Korea allowed for a more open and candid discussion on how to achieve the goals of diplomacy that President Trump has laid out.”
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