North Korea has passed out multiple invitations to meet with United States presidents, but the only sitting president to agree so far is the current one.
North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un asked President Donald Trump to meet with him and discuss diplomatic issues between the two countries, but White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump would only meet Kim as long as there are efficient steps taken towards denuclearization. Therefore, Kim would no longer be allowed to test missiles if he wants to meet with Trump.
Chung Eui-Yong, South Korea’s national security adviser, said North Korea would negotiate nuclear terms with Trump, and they agreed to stop any ballistic missile testing between now and the meeting.
North Korea’s last missile test was Nov. 29, 2017, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, an organization to help prevent attacks with weapons of mass destruction. Kim had a streak of 23 missile launches in 2017, and he ended it with the one in November. The last testing proved North Korea has developed nuclear weapons exponentially.
South Korea conveyed the invite to Trump and said they hope he and Kim will meet within May, but for now the question is what will happen if the two meet.
Robert Blanton, a political science professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said this would be groundbreaking for North Korea as a whole.
“It’s a clear symbolic victory for North Korea,” Blanton said. “For a sitting U.S. president to meet with a foreign leader sends a message that a given regime is important to U.S. foreign policy. Moreover, it sends an implicit message that we recognize a given regime as legitimate.”
Blanton said there is no promise anything will come out of this meeting except North Korea will get what it has been wanting.
“This is the first time a sitting U.S. president has met the North Korean leader,” Blanton said. “Just having the meeting is a concession of sorts to North Korea, and there’s no guarantee anything will come of it. It should lead to an improvement in relations with North Korea in the run-up to the meeting.”
Blanton said the meeting seems to be on its way with nothing stopping it, but the outcomes are unknown at this point.
“Obviously they will discuss something related to nuclear weapons, but beyond that no one really even knows what will be on the table,” Blanton said. “The best case would be North Korea agreeing to some type of test ban or possibly some dismantling of nuclear weapons in exchange for some type of relaxation of sanctions. There are numerous other outcomes that are possible and not nearly as positive.”
Jeremy Diamond, a White House reporter, said this meeting would give North Korea a big ego boost because this is what will make Kim look as powerful as Trump and other leaders. If Trump goes through with meeting Kim then North Korea would be recognized as an equal internationally.
Domenico Montanaro, National Public Radio’s editor for politics, said the meeting would be “extraordinary” because of the fact Trump and Kim have been going back and forth with insults for months now, and this was not the path most people saw coming.
