Trump Won’t Meet Kim Jong Un With Moon in Visit, Seoul Says

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has no plans to hold a trilateral summit with the leaders of North Korea and South Korea during a visit to the divided peninsula this weekend, an official from South Korea’s presidential office said Monday.

Trump won’t hold what would be an unprecedented meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in after arriving in Seoul on Saturday, said the official, who asked not to be named because the schedule had not yet been announced. Trump was considering making his first trip to the militarized border between the two countries, the Yonhap News Agency reported, citing a government official -- a visit that would bring him to Kim’s doorstep.

Speculation about a possible third summit between Trump and Kim has reemerged after the North Korean leader expressed “satisfaction” on the front page of his ruling party newspaper Sunday with a letter from the U.S. president. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo also said before setting off for the Middle East and Asia that relations between U.S. and North Korea were in a “better place” after the leaders exchanged letters.

“I’m hopeful that this will provide a good foundation for us to continue these important discussions with the North Koreans to denuclearize the peninsula,” Pompeo said of Trump’s letter. “We’re literally prepared to begin at a moment’s notice if the North Koreans indicate that they’re prepared for those discussions.”

A year after Trump and Kim first met in Singapore and held their second, more confrontational meeting in Hanoi, the U.S. and North Korea are stuck in the same spot -- still waiting to begin substantive talks on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions that have cut off the isolated country’s economy from the world. U.S. officials have sought for weeks to resume the discussions that collapsed after Hanoi.

--With assistance from Nick Wadhams.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jihye Lee in Seoul at jlee2352@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz

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