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Trump Says He’ll Meet With Kim Jong Un Again ‘Quite Soon’

Trump Says He'll Meet North Korea's Kim Again `Quite Soon'

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said he will meet for a second time with Kim Jong Un in the “not-too-distant future” after the North Korean leader showed signs of wanting to reach a deal that would end his nuclear program.

“We’ll be having a second summit with the chairman in the not-too-distant future,” Trump said during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-In in New York. “I see tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of Chairman Kim.”

Trump said the meeting will likely have a similar format to their June summit in Singapore, but will probably take place at a different location.

Stalled talks have shown new signs of life after Moon and Kim met last week in Pyongyang. At the summit, Kim said he would dismantle a major missile-engine site and possibly his Yongbyon nuclear facility if the U.S. took unspecified “corresponding measures.” Many key details were left unclear, including whether inspectors would be allowed to verify the process.

Both Trump and Kim have recently said they’d like to meet again to further discuss a deal for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. The two leaders met for the first time at the Singapore summit, where they agreed in principle to ease tensions and work toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

But North Korea has shown little sign of giving up its arms, and subsequent rounds of negotiations led by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo haven’t produced so much as a timetable for disarmament.

Earlier Monday, Trump said Pompeo would be working out the details of a second summit “in the immediate future,” adding that Kim had requested it in “a beautiful letter.”

Moon, speaking through a translator during a meeting with Trump on Monday, said Kim had offered high praise for Trump.

“Chairman Kim conveyed unwavering trust and expectations in you,” Moon said told the U.S. president. “You are indeed the only person who can solve this.”

Kim reportedly told South Korean envoys earlier this month that he would like to achieve denuclearization before the end of Trump’s first term.

Besides the Trump-Kim meeting in June, leaders of the two Koreas have held three summits this year alone – more than the total in the previous seven decades since fighting stopped. Kim also promised to visit Seoul later this year, another first that Moon hopes would give South Koreans a chance to listen to his thoughts “in his own voice.”

Moon is looking to bridge the gap between Pyongyang and Washington that prompted talks to stall since the June meeting. The biggest stumbling block is a request from North Korea to declare an end to the 1950-1953 Korean War as a confidence-building measure before moving on to the next stage of denuclearization.

Moon said a peace declaration would merely amount to a political statement, and a formal treaty that could lead to the withdrawal of UN and U.S. forces wouldn’t come until the final stage of denuclearization.

--With assistance from Toluse Olorunnipa.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Epstein in New York at jepstein32@bloomberg.net;Youkyung Lee in New York at ylee582@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu, Mike Dorning

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.