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| U.S. President Donald Trump walks to board Air Force One as he departs Washington for travel to the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., June 26. Reuters-Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
U.S. President Donald Trump will not meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his possible visit to the demilitarized zone in the inter-Korean border area this weekend.
Trump will take a two-day trip to South Korea from Saturday, following his trip to Japan for the G20 summit in Osaka.
Even if no face-to-face meetings are expected in the near future between Trump and Kim, the U.S. leader opened the possibility for communication with the North's young leader in a different format.
"I'll be meeting with a lot of other people, not by him," Trump told reporters before boarding Marine One at the White House. "But I may be speaking to him in a different form."
Rumors have said that Trump might hold a surprise meeting with Kim near the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjeom. The reports came amid thawing relations between Washington and Pyongyang following the leaders' recent exchange of letters.
On Sunday, Trump will hold a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Seoul before returning to the U.S.
Despite no meeting confirmed between Trump and Kim, chances are Stephen Biegun, Washington's top nuclear envoy for North Korea, may contact North Korean officials during his stay in Seoul. The official arrived here Thursday and will stay until Sunday.
Officials from Seoul and Washington did not confirm Biegun's potential meetings with North Korean representatives.
His official schedule includes a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Lee Do-hoon on Friday. Both sides will narrow their differences on security agenda to be discussed between Moon and Trump during their upcoming summit.
The two nuclear envoys will likely discuss the ongoing deadlock in nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang, and seek ways to resume the suspended dialogue with Pyongyang.
On the same day, Biegun will also meet with the South's Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul and share views on the nuclear impasse. Kim is likely to share the status of the South's ongoing humanitarian rice aid to the North.
Biegun is expected to call for the minister to join hands to resume now-suspended working-level talks between Washington and Pyongyang. The U.S. nuclear envoy has in recent months underlined the need for resuming negotiations with the North, saying that doors are wide open for discussions with Pyongyang.
Relations between the U.S. and the North have reached an impasse in the wake of the breakdown of the Hanoi summit last February between Trump and Kim Jong-un.
But starting this month, a glimmer of hope started rekindling over the possible resumption of the nuclear talks between the two, with Trump and Kim engaging in a letter exchange through which both sides reiterated their bilateral trust.
The exchange of letters has raised hopes for Washington and Pyongyang to restart their stalled working-level talks. For this reason, all focus has been on whether Biegun will be able to contact North Korean officials during his stay here.
But given the friendly relations between Trump and Kim, a top-down approach, such as their third meeting for another summit, looks to be the most effective and plausible scenario to rapidly resume the dialogue momentum between the two sides.
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