North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jung Un has a Plan B if the summit between him and President Donald Trump doesn’t work out. In fact, it might work out to his benefit. A North Korean monitoring group named 38 North doubts that the Jung-Trump meeting will happen and says that, like most leaders political or otherwise, Kim developed a sort of contingency plan in case things fell through with his meeting with Trump for any reason. The group is affiliated with the Stimson Center that is based in Washington D.C. Their senior fellow, Joel Wit, actually puts North Korea in a favorable position.
North Korea’s relationship with China, Russia, and South Korea is a good one and one on which they will capitalize if the tentative June 12 meeting in Singapore falls through . Wit says that President Trump doesn’t seem to understand the status of things at this point and the opportunities it gives to Kim to use his relationship with the three countries to his benefit while excluding the U.S. A sign that this is the case, according to Wit, is that POTUS thinks that if he pressures North Korea enough, they will re-commit to a June summit.
Trump was, according to Newsweek , pleased by North Korea’s diplomatic response to his letter that canceled the Singapore meeting. He has softened his stance a bit since then and says that negotiations for the June meeting are “going along very well.”
Donald Trump now says the meeting date with Kim Jong Un “hasn’t changed” https://t.co/VvQdXjjo0f pic.twitter.com/OAVuxIq84D
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) May 27, 2018
On Sunday, South Korean President Moon Jae-In committed to denuclearization and that Un said as much in a recent quickly-organized meeting he had with the leader Saturday. Moon stated that Kim requested the meeting. The South Korean leader is eager for the two leaders to talk as he sees an agreement between the two as the best way for the countries to ease tensions between them that had many in fear of a war just a year ago according to ABC News . Moon also indicated that the North Korean leader was committed to working with President Trump to work toward peace. Despite Moon’s assurances to Kim that Trump has a “firm resolve” to achieve a more peaceful relationship with North Korea, the country’s leader has his doubts. Moon described his concerns about a U.S.-North Korea summit and Trump’s intentions.
“What Kim is unclear about is that he has concerns about whether his country can surely trust the United States over its promise to end hostile relations (with North Korea) and provide a security guarantee if they do denuclearization.”
