President Trump (L) and North Korea's Kim
Photo: AFP
Trump announces date for summit with North Korea's Kim
Meeting to be held June 12 in Singapore, President Trump tweets, adding both leaders will 'try to make it a very special moment for world peace'; Senate's top Democrat Chuck Schumer casts aspersions on accomplishment, says 'in eagerness to strike deal, get photo op, Trump will strike a quick and bad one.'
US President Donald Trump announced on his Twitter account Thursday that the planned historic summit meeting
with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place June 12 in Singapore.
When the two leaders convene for the "highly anticipated meeting," Trump said they will "both try to make it a very special moment for world peace."
President Trump (L) announced he will meet North Korea's Kim June 12 in Singapore (Photo: AFP)
The Senate's top Democrat, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, was less enthused with the meeting, saying he feared the president, "in his eagerness to strike a deal, and get the acclaim and a photo op, will strike a quick one and a bad one, not a strong one, not a lasting one" with North Korea.
The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018
In his Senate floor speech, the New York Democrat also commented on the release of three American hostages by North Korea earlier Thursday, much ballyhooed by President Trump, and said he thought it was "no great accomplishment" since they should never have been detained in the first place.
Senate Minority Leader Schumer disparaged Trump's enthusiasm with the meeting (Photo: EPA)
Trump welcomed the three hostages at the Andrews Air Force Base near Washington earlier in the day. They returned to the US along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who visited Pyongyang to finalize the summit meeting's details with Kim.
Trump hailed the hostages' release as a promising sign en route to the Korean peninsula's denuclearization, saying it was a "great honor" to welcome the hostages back to the States and adding that the "true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons."
President Trump and his entourage welcoming the hostages (צילום: רויטרס)
The president, much to Schumer's chagrin, thanked the North Korean despot for releasing the hostages and iterated his belief that Kim truly desired achieving denuclearization. "I really think he wants to do something," Trump said.
"My proudest achievement will be when we denuclearize that entire peninsula. People have been waiting for that for a long time," Trump added. "I really think (Kim) wants to do something to bring that country back into the real world."
Regarding his expected meeting with Kim, Trump concluded by saying, "We have a very good chance of doing something meaningful."
Trump (2nd right) and the three hostages (Photo: EPA)
Earlier this week, Pyongyang criticized "misleading" claims that maintained that the American administration's policy of maximum political pressures and sanctions pushed North Korea back to the negotiating table.
The country's official news agency quoted a foreign affairs ministry official as warning that such claims were a "dangerous attempt" to scuttle the détente brewing in the peninsula after the previous historic meeting between the two countries' leaders.
During said summit, held in South Korea, Kim agreed to a series of measures intended to improve relations with the South, and voiced his willingness to also discuss denuclearization.
North Korea's Kim (L) met his South Korean counterpart (Photo: AFP / KCNA via KNS)
The North Korean leader did not, however, expound on the exact conditions under which his country will consent to forsake its nuclear program—and whether it will hold onto the nuclear arsenal it currently possessed.
Nevertheless, Trump and other senior American officials have said time and again that Washington's hard-line policy on North Korea—along with the pressures exerted on its chief ally China—played a critical role in completely transforming the situation in the region, where tensions have previously run high.
Only a year ago, when Kim carried out long-range ballistic missiles tests and was embroiled in a coarse war of words with Trump, it seemed inconceivable for denuclearization to even be on the table, they maintained.
Meanwhile, the North Korean statement, it seems, was intended to strengthen Kim's position in anticipation of the summit with Trump, with North Korea claiming Kim himself was steering events.
"The US is intentionally provoking the Democratic People's Republic of Korea during a period in which the situation in the Korean peninsula is edging towards peace and reconciliation," the foreign affairs ministry official was quoted as saying.
