Kim May Have Reconsidered His ‘Christmas Gift,’ Trump Aide Says

(Bloomberg) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may have reconsidered his planned “Christmas gift” to the U.S. amid ongoing high-level personal diplomacy by President Donald Trump, said National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.

“Multiple administrations, Republican and Democrat, have dealt with this situation without success over the years,” O’Brien said Sunday of North Korea on ABC’s “This Week.” “President Trump took a different tack with personal diplomacy, and so far we’ve had some success.”

“They have a good relationship personally,” O’Brien added of Trump and Kim. “So perhaps he’s reconsidered that, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

O’Brien, a former hostage envoy and Trump’s fourth national security adviser, warned that the U.S. is ready to respond should Kim fire additional long-range missiles or conduct further nuclear weapons tests.

“We’ll reserve judgment, but the United States will take action as we do in these situations,” O’Brien said. “If Kim Jong Un takes that approach, we’ll be extraordinarily disappointed and we’ll demonstrate that disappointment.”

Trump has touted his outreach to Pyongyang, and his personal ties to Kim, as a foreign policy triumph. Kim and Trump have met three times -- a first for any sitting U.S. president -- and the two regularly praise each other.

Open Channels

O’Brien declined to discuss whether Washington and Pyongyang have had recent discussions beyond noting that “channels of communication” were open. Time will tell whether Trump’s approach works, he said.

“The president has no illusion that this is a very dangerous, concerning matter,” O’Brien said. “It was dangerous when he got there, and he’s tried to de-escalate tensions and get to the point where Kim Jong Un will actually live up to his commitments.”

But Senator Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, said he’s seen little progress from Trump’s efforts, and that Kim needs to announce that he plans to give up his nuclear weapons.

“The meetings with the two leaders have produced very little in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Cardin, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Commitee, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Vase Incoming?

While Trump in 2018 claimed that North Korea was “no longer a nuclear threat” and that he and Kim “fell in love,” a deal between the two countries has remained elusive. Neither side can agree on the terms of disarmament or U.S.-imposed economic sanctions. Meanwhile, the Asian nation has continued to conduct missile tests and build its nuclear arsenal.

North Korea suggested a “Christmas gift” would be forthcoming after demanding additional concessions as part of the stalled nuclear talks. Earlier this year, Kim’s regime set a Dec. 31 deadline for a breakthrough. Trump has downplayed any threat, saying on Christmas Eve that the U.S. will “deal with it” and joking that Kim’s “gift” could be a “beautiful vase.”

One sticking point has been the presence of U.S. troops and weapons in South Korea. Trump has backed off his demand that South Korea pay five times more to host U.S. military personnel after Seoul agreed to buy more American weapons, South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Thursday, citing an unidentified diplomatic source.

On a separate subject, O’Brien, 53, brushed aside suggestions he might be tapped as secretary of State if Michael Pompeo steps down from the post to run for the Senate seat in Kansas in 2020, as has been widely rumored.

“Mike Pompeo is a fantastic secretary of State,” he said. “I spoke with him about this two nights ago. He said he’s not running for Senate. He said he’s staying as secretary of State.”

--With assistance from Laura Davison.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steve Geimann in Washington at sgeimann@bloomberg.net;Susan Decker in Washington at sdecker1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, Ros Krasny

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