President Donald Trump has begun thinking about canceling the much touted nuclear summit with North Korea, sensing he could be embarrassed by Kim Jong Un.
“President Trump, increasingly concerned that his summit meeting in Singapore next month with North Korea’s leader could turn into a political embarrassment, has begun pressing his aides and allies about whether he should take the risk of proceeding,” the N.Y. Times David E. Sanger reported on Monday.
Kim Jong Un last week canceled bilateral talks with South Korea and threatened to cancel a planned summit with President Trump scheduled for next month in Singapore, citing military drills between the U.S. and South Korea.
North Korea called the military exercises “provocation” and said any negotiations with the United States should not include nuclear weapons, an almost impossible pre-condition for President Trump who said last week ‘everyone thinks’ he deserves a Nobel Prize for bringing peace between North and South Koreas.
The New York Times said Trump’s aides have grown concerned that the president had signaled he wanted the summit meeting too much.
It said “Trump was both surprised and angered by a statement issued on Wednesday by the North’s chief nuclear negotiator, and “On Thursday and Friday, Mr. Trump peppered aides with questions about the wisdom of proceeding.”
“The aides also worry that [Kim Jong-un], sensing the president’s eagerness, is prepared to offer assurances that will fade over time.”
“[A]ides who have recently left the administration say Mr. Trump has resisted the kind of detailed briefings about enrichment capabilities, plutonium reprocessing, nuclear weapons production and missile programs that [President] Obama and President George W. Bush regularly sat through.”
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