White House gift shop unveils new coin for "peace talks" with North Korea
The White House gift shop has introduced a new coin for President Trump's upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam next week. The White House gift shop is a private entity not run by the White House or administration.
The coins, which sell for $100 and are limited to 1,000, read "New Avenue Towards Peace" and "A Turning Point — Working Towards Complete Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
The coins also name South Korean President Moon Jae-In, who has not been named as someone who will be present at the summit.
The White House has given few details on how the president is preparing for his second summit with the North Korean strongman, or what the president's exact objectives are with the summit. Asked what the White House's concrete goals are, top White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told CBS News he wants to make progress towards denuclearization.
"The president's made very clear that he wants to have a second meeting of its kind as a way to continue to move towards denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula which benefits everyone," Conway said. "And of course it was President Obama who told President Trump, North Korea will be your greatest challenge."
"So he's trying to tackle that challenge, we're way ahead already," Conway said. "We have the detainees back on American soil. The vice president went to Hawaii to receive the remains of some of our fallen from the Korean War. To try to end the war of nearly seven decades in Korea and get on our way to denuclearization is a very, very important goal and that's why the president is going over for a second time, traveling quite a distance, toward that end. But in the meantime the sanctions remain."
Last year, after his first summit with Kim, Mr. Trump tweeted that North Korea was no longer a threat. But the Pentagon disagrees. Last month, the Defense Department's missile defense review found North Korea still poses an "extraordinary threat," and North Korea has yet to produce evidence it is dismantling its nuclear program.
Kim sees weapons as the "ultimate guarantor" of survival, former top CIA analyst Jung Pak told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett on his podcast "The Takeout" this week. That raises the question of what exactly "denuclearization" means.
Senior administration officials told reporters on a conference call earlier this week that there is no agreed-upon definition of denuclearization shared by North Korea and the U.S.
Mr. Trump leaves early next week for his summit with Kim, which is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.
