Senior administration officials expressed confidence Sunday that President Trump would not be taken advantage of by North Korea’s Kim Jong Un prior to and during any direct talks, but critics suggested the president’s impulsiveness and inexperience could spell disaster if a face-to-face meeting between the two leaders proceeds as planned.
Trump would be the first sitting U.S. president to hold talks with a North Korean leader if he follows through on the decision Thursday to accept an invitation to meet with Kim. Amid rising tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic programs, the two leaders had exchanged a series of threats and insults in recent months.
Some foreign policy observers have attributed the president’s abrupt move at least in part to his fondness for grand gestures, but CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Trump “isn’t doing this for theater.”
“He’s going to solve a problem,” said Pompeo, who was interviewed on “Fox News Sunday.” He also insisted that Kim must be prepared to talk about “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization” if the meeting is to go ahead.
Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin also sought to deflect any suggestion that the president would soften the U.S. stance toward North Korea in advance of the talks, even though many observers say that agreeing to direct talks is already a huge and prestige-enhancing concession to Kim.
“We’re not removing the maximum-pressure campaign,” Mnuchin said , interviewed on NBC’s “Meet the Press”; he added that “the sanctions are staying on” and the United States would proceed with military exercises in the region as scheduled.
Trump, he said, simply planned to “sit down and see if he can cut a deal.”
Trump, in a boisterous campaign-style speech delivered Saturday night in Pennsylvania, indicated he saw little in the way of pitfalls even if the talks fail.
“I think we will have tremendous success,” he said, describing prospective denuclearization as “the greatest deal for the world.” But he also raised the possibility that he may “leave fast” if conditions are not ripe.
“Who knows what’s going to happen?” Trump said.
White House spokesman Raj Shah, appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” reiterated Washington’s expectation that North Korea would not engage in nuclear or missile testing in advance of any talks.
So far, North Korean officials have not verified any of the details about their offer to meet or any preconditions. All messages have been relayed through South Korea.
Some Trump critics praised the president’s pivot toward diplomacy, but raised alarms about the administration’s diplomatic acumen. The White House has not named an ambassador to South Korea, who would under normal circumstances be a key interlocutor on matters regarding the North.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) interviewed on “Meet the Press,” cited the complexity of any talks, which she said were worrying against a backdrop of Trump’s failure to heed the advice of experts on the region.
“What I’m concerned about in these negotiations is we have a State Department that’s just been decimated,” said Warren. “And that really matters, because it means you don’t have the people who understand the economics, who speak the language, who know the history.”
The Massachusetts Democrat, who has frequently sparred with Trump, said she wanted to see the president succeed, “because if he succeeds, America succeeds.” But she said she feared that North Korean leaders would “take advantage” of him.
Concern also came from within the GOP ranks, with Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) saying that the North should have to do more in order to merit a meeting.
“I’d like to see come concrete steps — more than just a cessation of testing,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
A former top advisor to President Obama warned against allowing any element of showmanship to affect decision-making on North Korea, citing the “volatile” situation on the Korean Peninsula.
“This is not a real estate deal or a reality show,” Ben Rhodes, who served as Obama’s deputy national security advisor, said on ABC’s “This Week.” But he, too, expressed hopes that Trump’s unorthodox approach would yield good results.
“I think the nation should be rooting for diplomacy to work with North Korea, and I think that’s certainly President Obama’s view,” he said.
