North, South Korea set up hotline for leaders ahead of summit

North Koreans visit the Mansu Hill to lay floral baskets and flowers to the statues of late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on the occasion of the 106th birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, North Korea Saturday, April 14, 2018.

Prime Minister Abe secured an agreement from President Trump to bring up the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea during any future summit.

There, Kim agreed to hold a bilateral summit with the South Korean President as well as US President Donald Trump. He cast the move as an appropriate appetizer for the banquet of denuclearization talks to follow.

South Korea strives to maintain close coordination with allied and neighboring countries ahead of the summit.

Of course, the abduction of Japanese citizens is an issue unique to Japan, and there is no way to solve it other than for Japan to find its own path and negotiate with North Korea. “He’s done it himself”.

There is a significant gap in the diplomatic ability to deal with North Korea between the Trump administration, which uses both hardball and softball tactics, and the Abe administration, which has been fixated on applying pressure to Pyongyang. Where they have fallen short, Trump believes his more unorthodox approach can achieve success. China has announced its own $50 billion list of US goods for possible retaliation and says it is ready to take other steps.

For Washington and Seoul, denuclearization means ridding the North of its nuclear weapons. “So I felt it was a risk worth taking”.

The question of whether the North is willing to give up what it calls the “treasured sword” of its nuclear arms is key. Kim may have said everything Pompeo and Trump wanted to hear, but how much of it was honest?

Amid this process of approach, Kim has planned to dialogue in May or June next with U.S. President Donald Trump, made his first visit overseas to China in March and his Foreign Minister, Ri Yong Ho, was later in Beijing. Such a move could be an olive branch from Kim, who last year released college student Otto Warmbier to return to the United States after he had been detained for more than a year. Analysts said the president could view a return on Air Force One with the other three Americans as a dramatic denouement that obscures any setbacks in nuclear talks.

United States defence spending on Japan far exceeds that on South Korea, as the U.S. is maintaining 50000 troops in Japan at a cost of $5.5bn, while Japan contributes an additional $4bn to USA base expenses. “I always say yes, he can be better”, he added. But Trump did not call their release a precondition for the summit.

South Korea earlier said Moon and Kim were likely to hold a telephone conversation before they meet on April 27.

“If I think that it’s a meeting that is not going to be fruitful, we’re not going to go”, Mr Trump told reporters.

The meeting between Kim and Moon will only be the third summit between the rivals since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The North has for decades tied its development of nuclear weapons to what it has labeled a “hostile” USA policy – a reference to the 28,500 troops on its “doorstep” in South Korea, as well as the roughly 50,000 troops stationed in Japan.

The announcement was made by the state news agency KCNA early on Saturday morning, the day after a hotline between the leaders of North and South Koreawent live.

The Korean Catholic Church declared its “first of year of peace” in 2015 while commemorating the 70th year since Korea split.

The reason why Kim Jong-Un can so confidently agree to talks with the U.S. on denuclearisation is that he already knows that the USA is ready and willing to pull out of South Korea.

The US and North Korea could commit to denuclearizing the peninsula, a result that would be seen as a major victory for Trump.