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🇰🇷 South Korea /Energy & Infrastructure

White House says Trump open to talks with Kim Jong Un without preconditions, leaves denuclearization wording unclear

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Official statement Ongoing story
  • The White House reaffirmed that President Donald Trump remains willing to talk with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without preconditions.
  • It did not explicitly say whether the unchanged U.S. policy includes the goal of complete denuclearization, while the State Department reaffirmed that goal.
  • The differing emphasis comes as preparations for a possible U.S.-North Korea summit remain a subject of questions.

The White House says Donald Trump remains willing to talk with Kim Jong Un without preconditions, but it avoided directly mentioning the long-standing U.S. goal of North Korea’s denuclearization.

President Trump remains open to talking with Kim Jong Un without preconditions.

— White House officialThe White House reaffirmed Trump’s position on dialogue with North Korea.

A White House official said Trump had held three “historic summits” with Kim during his first term that stabilized the Korean Peninsula. “U.S. policy toward North Korea has not changed. President Trump remains open to talking with Kim Jong Un without preconditions,” the official said.

The White House did not clarify whether the unchanged policy includes the goal of complete denuclearization. Trump has recently avoided giving a clear answer when asked whether resuming talks with Kim would aim at denuclearizing North Korea. On the 19th of last month, when asked that question, he replied, “I don’t want to talk about that.”

I don’t want to talk about that.

— Donald TrumpTrump declined to answer whether renewed talks with Kim would seek North Korean denuclearization.

The administration has repeated since last year that its North Korea policy remains unchanged and that Trump is willing to meet Kim without preconditions. After a U.S.-China summit in May, the White House said Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had confirmed a shared goal of denuclearizing North Korea. The issue could return to the agenda of the two leaders if Xi visits the United States later this month, prompting attention to the wording Washington uses.

The president’s remarks make our position sufficiently clear. The United States remains committed to the complete denuclearization of North Korea.

— State Department spokespersonThe State Department explicitly reaffirmed the denuclearization objective.

The State Department, which handles day-to-day North Korea policy, restated the denuclearization goal more directly. Responding to a request for comment on a North Korean Foreign Ministry statement that its policy toward the United States remained committed to the toughest possible response, a department spokesperson said, “The president’s remarks make our position sufficiently clear. The United States remains committed to the complete denuclearization of North Korea.” The spokesperson added, “The United States remains willing to engage in dialogue with North Korea without preconditions.”

The United States remains willing to engage in dialogue with North Korea without preconditions.

— State Department spokespersonThe spokesperson repeated the administration’s position on talks.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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