White House Moving Forward to Prepare for Summit Despite North Korea's Threats of Cancellation
US President Donald Trump remains ready as the White House continues with preparations for a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, despite earlier statements from the country threatening to pull out of the summit.
According to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, they are moving on with their arrangements for the summit even though there's the possibility that North Korea will pull out.
"If the North Koreans want to meet, we'll be there," Sanders said, as quoted by CNN. "We're continuing to move forward in preparations and the president as we've said all along will be prepared and ready to meet and there's really not a lot to add beyond that point," she explained.
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Sanders also maintained that at this point, there have been no changes made to their summit schedule as well. That includes a continuing plan for the US to keep up a "maximum pressure campaign" on North Korea, as well as a planned meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in set for next week.
As for President Trump, so far, he has refrained from making a statement about the new developments leading up to the planned summit, either before the media or via his Twitter account.
When pressed about it, his reply was short. "We'll have to see," Trump said.
According to North Korea state media, the country had high hopes for the summit, at least until they were "totally disappointed" by a recent remark by US National Securit Adviser John Bolton.
Bolton, speaking in a televised interview earlier this weekend, mentioned that a "Libya model" of denuclearisation could be a fit for North Korea. Libya had given up a nuclear program in a peaceful disarmament process in December 2003, only to have Colonel Gaddafi die at the hands of rebels backed by the Western powers, as BBC recalled.
North Korea's statement firmly pointed at Bolton and his remark as the reason why they are now threatening to pull out of the summit. "We do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him," North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan noted in his remarks.
"If the US is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue," the North Korean minister added.
North Korea has also pulled out of a meeting with South Korea set for Wednesday, May 16, this time in protest over US-South Korea military exercises.
As for Bolton, he along with other White House officials believe that the summit will still proceed, despite threats from North Korea. "We want to do whatever we can to make the meeting a success," Bolton said.
"But there should be no mistake that if we don't see that commitment to denuclearization then we're not going to make the mistakes of past administrations and fall into endless discussions with North Korea," he added in a recent interview with Fox News.
