White House "coordinating" a second Trump-Kim meeting
The White House is "coordinating" a second summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday.
Kim requested and expressed intent to schedule the meeting in a recent "warm" letter to Mr. Trump, and the White House is open to yet another meeting, she said. That's after Mr. Trump canceled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's scheduled trip to North Korea, citing a lack of progress on denuclearization.
"The president has received the letter from Kim Jong Un," Sanders said during Monday's press briefing. "It was a very warm, very positive letter. We won't release the full letter unless the North Korean leader agrees that we should. The primary purpose of the letter was to request and look to schedule another meeting with the president, which we are open to and are already in the process of coordinating that."
Sanders did not say when such a meeting might take place.
Asked by CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang why the president would look to meet with Kim after canceling Pompeo's trip and what progress has been made, Sanders cited the recent North Korean parade that displayed no intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, along with the new letter.
"Again, certainly, the most recent parade this weekend, one of the first times I believe that they have had a parade similar where they weren't highlighting their nuclear arsenal," Sanders said. "We consider that a sign of good faith. And again the letter from Kim Jong Un to the president certainly showed a commitment to continuing conversations, continuing to work on the progress that they have had since their meeting just a few months ago, and also a continued commitment to focus on denuclearization of the peninsula."
Mr. Trump also touted North Korea's lack of a nuclear display on Twitter Sunday.
"North Korea has just staged their parade, celebrating 70th anniversary of founding, without the customary display of nuclear missiles. Theme was peace and economic development," the president tweeted.
The commander-in-chief has continued to praise the North Korean leader in the months since his June summit with him in Singapore.
But for now, progress on denuclearization remains yet to be defined. On Monday, national security adviser John Bolton said it's up to Kim to walk through the door that Mr. Trump has opened for him.
"We're still waiting for them," Bolton said in a speech to the Federalist Society in Washington.
