Ivanka Trump Predicts ‘Golden Era’ for North Korea in Nuke Deal

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump predicted that the Korean peninsula would enjoy a “golden era” if Kim Jong Un closes a deal with her father to relinquish his nuclear weapons.

“We are on the precipice of ushering in potentially a golden era for the Korean peninsula,” Trump said in an interview in Seoul on Sunday. “There are serious steps that need to be taken by North Korea to realize that goal -- of course, denuclearization.”

The U.S. president is meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-In today and then plans to travel to the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas, where he hopes to briefly meet Kim. Donald Trump said in a news conference following the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan on Saturday that he’d step over the border into North Korea if invited by Kim, which would make him the first sitting American president to visit the isolated country.

“I understand they want to meet,” Trump said of the North Koreans at a meeting with South Korean business leaders on Sunday. But he didn’t indicate whether Kim would show up.

“I’d love to say hello,” he said. “Let’s see what happens. They’re trying to work it out. Not so easy.”

Ivanka Trump said she would “absolutely” enter North Korea with her father. “If I was invited I would,” she said, calling the possibility of her father entering the country “a very meaningful moment.”

It’s unknown whether Kim will appear at the border. Trump said Saturday evening that Pyongyang had responded to his invitation -- delivered via Twitter in what he described as a snap decision yesterday morning -- but he didn’t elaborate. North Korean media reports were silent on the matter on Sunday.

The White House’s official schedule for Trump’s day in South Korea doesn’t list a Kim meeting at the border and allows little time for it. Ivanka Trump declined to say whether there was any update on Kim.

“I’ll let the team roll that one out,” she said. Sunday’s events would be “another step” toward an agreement with Pyongyang “regardless of whether there’s a meeting,” she said.

--With assistance from Margaret Talev and Jihye Lee.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Seoul at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Derek Wallbank

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