Moon: Trump says likes North Korea’s Kim, will fulfill his wishes

Donald Trump wants North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to know that he likes him and will fulfill his wishes, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in has said, a day after meeting the US president at an economic summit in Argentina.

Moon, who is hoping to host Kim soon on the first ever trip to Seoul by a North Korean leader as agreed earlier this year, said Trump had asked him to pass on a message.

“The message is that President Trump has very favourable views toward Chairman Kim and he likes him,” Moon told reporters aboard a flight from Argentina to New Zealand, where he started a three-day state visit on Sunday.

“As such, he asked me to tell Chairman Kim that he wants to implement the rest of their agreement together and he will fulfil Chairman Kim’s wishes.”

Trump, who met Kim in Singapore in June, said on Saturday that he is likely to meet the North Korean leader for a second time in January or February, with three sites for their meeting under consideration.

“We’re getting along very well. We have a good relationship,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from the G20 summit.

Trump added that at some point he will invite Kim to the United States.

In June, Trump and Kim opened up a face-to-face dialogue after months of trading military threats and pointed barbs.

The two leaders signed a vaguely worded document on denuclearisation, but progress has since stalled as Washington and Pyongyang spar over the meaning of the document.

North Korea has taken few concrete steps to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to meet a top North Korean official in early November, but the meeting was abruptly put off, with Pyongyang insisting that Washington ease sanctions.

On Friday, Trump discussed the situation with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

The pair “reaffirmed their commitment to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearisation” of North Korea, Trump’s spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

They agreed on the need for “maintaining vigorous enforcement of existing sanctions to ensure North Korea understands that denuclearisation is the only path,” Sanders said.

In the Argentine capital, Trump held separate bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday that primarily focused on trade, but the US leader told Xi he had agreed to work with him “100 percent” on North Korea.

When asked on Saturday if he would ever host the North Korean leader in the United States, Trump replied: “At some point, yeah.”

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies