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US and South Korean officials see the chances fading of a meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year, according to five people with knowledge of the situation.
Trump, the only US president to have met a North Korean leader, has been eager to jump-start talks with North Korea, but Pyongyang has shown little interest in diplomacy aimed at containing its nuclear program.
The US has received no response from North Korea on holding a Trump-Kim meeting, and there is little time left before a regional summit in China next month where it might occur, said the five people — four of them briefed by senior officials from the US and South Korea, as well as a South Korean official.
North Korean state media has said Pyongyang would put tough conditions on agreeing to a bilateral summit, potentially including sanctions relief, even as Kim’s powerful sister has said the two leaders have an “excellent” relationship.
Trump ‘open’ to talks, nothing scheduled: officials
In August, the Republican president said he planned to meet with Kim later this year and that the North Korean leader had responded to his outreach.
South Korea’s intelligence agency told lawmakers late last month that there was a 50% chance of Trump and Kim meeting on the sidelines of the November 18-19 summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group in Shenzhen, China.
But on Monday, Trump, who met Kim three times in his first term, downplayed the prospects of such a meeting happening during the APEC meeting or a regional summit in the Philippines, also in November.
“I get along with him very well, and I’m not sure that anybody’s asking for a meeting,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Another South Korean official familiar with the matter said Pyongyang has made no move indicating it is preparing for a meeting with Trump. All of the people spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay private conversations.
South Korea’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last week, Seoul’s ambassador to Washington, Kang Kyung-wha, said no concrete progress had been made toward a Trump-Kim summit.
North Korea’s permanent mission to the UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“President Trump in his first term held three historic summits with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un that stabilized the Korean Peninsula,” said a White House official on condition of anonymity.
“US policy on North Korea has not changed. President Trump remains open to talking with Kim Jong Un, without any preconditions. No meetings to announce at this time. The leaders will meet at the appropriate time.”
Last month, a senior US official told reporters that Trump was “ready” to speak with Kim and that “the ball is very much in North Korea’s court.”
A Trump-Kim summit could come abruptly
Ankit Panda, a senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said there is less than a 10% chance of a meeting between Trump and Kim at the APEC summit.
“If Trump wants a meeting with Kim, I think the North Koreans are looking for a costly public signal,” Panda said, arguing that a recent US decision to scale back exercises with South Korea had not been sufficient.
Washington has occasionally sought the assistance of China, which has maintained close ties with Kim, in brokering talks with North Korea.
But cordial talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, set to continue at APEC, have not produced breakthroughs with Pyongyang.
The two Koreas remain technically at war under a truce that ended fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. The US stations about 28,500 troops and military hardware in South Korea in combined defense against North Korea, which has pursued nuclear arms and ballistic-missile development.
South Korean officials, citing private research group estimates, have said North Korea possesses between 80 and 120 nuclear warheads.
Trump’s meetings with Kim in 2018 and 2019, while historic, yielded no concrete results.
“I don’t know when they’re going to meet,” US Ambassador to South Korea Michelle Steel told an event in Seoul organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea on Wednesday. If they could arrange a meeting, she said, it would likely be announced abruptly.
“If it happens, then it’s going to happen the next day or within a couple of days’ notice.”