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| North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands ahead of their summit in Singapore in this June 12, 2018, photo. / AP-Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
Despite North Korea's rejection of another summit with the United States, the Donald Trump administration has been floating the idea ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.
However, doubting its sincerity, diplomatic experts say it is a U.S. ploy to preserve the status quo and prevent the isolated state from interfering in the vote.
U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo did not rule out the possibility of a summit between U.S. President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ahead of the election.
"I think that's unlikely," he said at the Economic Club of New York, Wednesday. "But in the event that it was appropriate ― we thought we could make material progress and the best way to do that was to put President Trump with Chairman Kim to do it ― I'm confident that the North Koreans and President Trump would find that in our best interests."
His remarks came less than 10 days after Trump told a media interview that he was open to another meeting with Kim, July 7.
However, Pyongyang has made it clear that it is not interested in any such event. The North Korean regime is highly anticipated to adopt a wait-and-see attitude until November.
"Trump and Pompeo intend to keep possible North Korean interference in the election at bay. To this end, the U.S. will pursue dialogue with the North because the latter does not usually take provocative actions while in talks," said Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University.
"Their remarks are not reliable. According to the tell-all book by Trump's former National Security Adviser John Bolton, Trump and Pompeo do not seem to take North Korea issues seriously."
Leif-Eric Easley, an associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University, said, "Although three Trump-Kim meetings so far have not produced denuclearization or sanctions relief, both sides continue to claim leader-to-leader relations as a source of accomplishment and leverage."
He added, "Trump wants to keep at least the status quo ahead of the November election and is willing to meet Kim again if North Korea's economic stress brings it back to the negotiating table offering concrete steps toward denuclearization."
Trump and Kim have had three meetings ― in Singapore in June 2018, in Vietnam in February 2019 and at the inter-Korean Joint Security Area in June 2019.
U.S. Naval War College professor Terence Roehrig said Trump's pursuit of another summit may be his gambit to turn things around ahead of the election.
"The Trump administration has many serious domestic issues to contend with, and the logistics of pulling off a face-to-face summit with the dangers of COVID-19 would be very daunting," Roehrig said.
"President Trump is clearly very personally invested in this process and it would be a distraction from the challenges his administration faces at home as well as a high-profile media event."
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