Moon lands in Washington for make or break meeting with Trump
- 6 years ago
Our top story this afternoon...
President Moon Jae-in is set to sit down with his American counterpart Donald Trump in Washington.
With Moon playing mediator, Tuesday's make-or-break talks come as skepticism is rising among Trump's inner circle on whether the June 12th North Korea-U.S. summit in Singapore will go ahead amid the harsh rhetoric flowing out of Pyongyang.
Our chief Blue House correspondent Moon Connyoung, who is traveling with the South Korean leader, files this report from Washington D.C.
"Having traveled fourteen hours across the Pacific Ocean, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, along with his aides and his traveling press corps, is now here in Washington D.C., for a two-day visit.
It's already the evening here in the U.S. east coast, basically, Mr. Moon has traveled across the globe for roughly three hours at midday Tuesday... in what was originally arranged as a meeting to fine-tune a joint strategy for dealing with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un but has instead become more of a crisis management session after Pyongyang last week threatened to pull out of the planned June 12 summit in Singapore."
Forget the pomp and the pageantry, this is strictly business; Three weeks before an unprecedented North Korea, U.S. summit is supposed to take place, President Moon will meet his U.S. counterpart
on Tuesday as U.S. officials try to figure out whether Pyongyang is serious about negotiating a deal on denuclearization.
The South Korean president led efforts to resume dialogue with North Korea and his government's enthusiastic accounts of its encounters with the North's Kim had spurred Mr. Trump to accept an offer of a never-before-seen meeting between a sitting U.S. President and a North Korean leader.
So, both Seoul's presidential Blue House and the White House appeared off-guard when, in a dramatic change of tone, North Korea last week threw into doubt the summit with Trump.
President Trump has insisted he remains committed to the summit, but U.S. Vice President Mike Pence warned on Monday that Mr. Trump was willing to walk away from the meeting and that North Korea should not attempt to seek concessions for promises it did not intend to keep.
It is against this backdrop that the leaders of South Korea and the U.S. meet at the White House on Tuesday for a private one-on-one with only their interpreters in attendance.
Speaking to the presidential press pool aboard Air Force One on the way to Washington, President Moon's chief national security adviser Chung Eui-yong said the two sides had decided to do away with protocol and formality of the usual summit.
There are no planned scenarios or pre-written scripts; none of the aides have any idea what the leaders will say or what will come out of the meeting.
But, experts in the U.S. say President Moon will need to convince President Trump to stay the course, reassuring him the direct talks with North Korea can still be the success he once promised Mr. Trump they would
President Moon Jae-in is set to sit down with his American counterpart Donald Trump in Washington.
With Moon playing mediator, Tuesday's make-or-break talks come as skepticism is rising among Trump's inner circle on whether the June 12th North Korea-U.S. summit in Singapore will go ahead amid the harsh rhetoric flowing out of Pyongyang.
Our chief Blue House correspondent Moon Connyoung, who is traveling with the South Korean leader, files this report from Washington D.C.
"Having traveled fourteen hours across the Pacific Ocean, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, along with his aides and his traveling press corps, is now here in Washington D.C., for a two-day visit.
It's already the evening here in the U.S. east coast, basically, Mr. Moon has traveled across the globe for roughly three hours at midday Tuesday... in what was originally arranged as a meeting to fine-tune a joint strategy for dealing with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un but has instead become more of a crisis management session after Pyongyang last week threatened to pull out of the planned June 12 summit in Singapore."
Forget the pomp and the pageantry, this is strictly business; Three weeks before an unprecedented North Korea, U.S. summit is supposed to take place, President Moon will meet his U.S. counterpart
on Tuesday as U.S. officials try to figure out whether Pyongyang is serious about negotiating a deal on denuclearization.
The South Korean president led efforts to resume dialogue with North Korea and his government's enthusiastic accounts of its encounters with the North's Kim had spurred Mr. Trump to accept an offer of a never-before-seen meeting between a sitting U.S. President and a North Korean leader.
So, both Seoul's presidential Blue House and the White House appeared off-guard when, in a dramatic change of tone, North Korea last week threw into doubt the summit with Trump.
President Trump has insisted he remains committed to the summit, but U.S. Vice President Mike Pence warned on Monday that Mr. Trump was willing to walk away from the meeting and that North Korea should not attempt to seek concessions for promises it did not intend to keep.
It is against this backdrop that the leaders of South Korea and the U.S. meet at the White House on Tuesday for a private one-on-one with only their interpreters in attendance.
Speaking to the presidential press pool aboard Air Force One on the way to Washington, President Moon's chief national security adviser Chung Eui-yong said the two sides had decided to do away with protocol and formality of the usual summit.
There are no planned scenarios or pre-written scripts; none of the aides have any idea what the leaders will say or what will come out of the meeting.
But, experts in the U.S. say President Moon will need to convince President Trump to stay the course, reassuring him the direct talks with North Korea can still be the success he once promised Mr. Trump they would