Donald Trump meeting with Kim Jong-un contingent on 'concrete steps' by North Korea, says White House

Vice President Mike Pence has said the US made “zero concessions” in order to get an invitation to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and talk about a possible end to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

Mr Pence said that President Donald Trump has “consistently increased the pressure” on North Korea, which has continued the development of its weapons - including an increasing number of missile tests in the last 12 months - despite numerous resolutions by the United Nations. Later at the White House, the press secretary made it clear that talks would only take place if Washington saw “concrete action” by North Korea towards denuclearisation.

Mr Trump and Mr Kim are expected to meet before the end of May, although a date and location has yet to be set. After months of escalating rhetoric between the nations the prospect of a thaw has been welcomed by world leaders.

Ms Sanders said at a briefing on Friday that President Trump was “in a great mood” in the wake of the announcement, saying that the US was having conversations “from a position of strength” – with denuclearisation having always been the goal of the administration.

It has taken many by surprise, including US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had said just hours before the announcement that the US was a “long ways from negotiations”.

But, Mr Tillerson said the President made the decision to accept the invite “himself”, a move he said was a “dramatic” reversal in posture for North Korea.

The swiftness of the more, allied to the lack of detail about the meeting, has led to questions about whether the summit may just play into the hands of Mr Kim, who will be given a rare photo opportunity with a prominent world leader, and get the type of international recognition that the regime craves.

In response to that Ms Sanders said that Mr Trump “is getting exactly what he wants” with Mr Kim having relayed to South Korea that Pyongyang had expressed a “commitment” to ending its nuclear programme, while also suggesting he would suspend any nuclear or missile tests during any direct talks.

”Let’s be very clear: the United States has made zero concessions. North Korea has made some promises,” Ms Sanders said. “We are making no concessions and we are not going to move forward until we see concrete and verified actions taken by North Korea.”

With both Mr Trump and Mr Kim involved, there is always likely to be an element of PR. “When diplomacy goes public there is an argument that it ceases to be diplomacy but merely an exercise in public relations,” said Dr Colin Alexander, an expert in political communications at Nottingham Trent University. “The meeting between the two leaders will be a carefully choreographed event... Just how much diplomatic substance will occur is debatable though,” he added.

But that symbolism was not lost on leaders around the world. Chinese President Xi Jinping told Mr Trump in a phone call on Friday that he “hopes the United States and North Korea start contacts and dialogue as soon as possible and strive to reach positive results,” according to state media.

A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry Geng Shuang said that China supports “positive inter-Korean and US-North Korea interactions” and hopes that all parties “show their political courage” in order come back to the negotiating table.

In the 2000s, Beijing hosted several rounds of six-nation talks involving the Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the US, armed at reducing Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Mr Trump has previously criticised China for not doing enough to push Pyongyang as North Korea’s major trading ally, but that tone has changed recently with China supporting the latest UN sanctions – the harshest ever imposed on the North.

However, China and Russia – another trading partner of Pyongyang – have been supporting the latest rounds of UN sanctions on the country.

After the invitation was extended and accepted, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the move was “a step in the right direction”.

He went on to express hope that an agreement would result from the meeting and that it is “necessary for normalising the situation around the Korean peninsula”.

Mr Lavrov had spoken out in January about the increasing “threats” the US had made about the potential of a military clash with North Korea in the wake of an increase in ballistic missile tests by Pyongyang during 2017, which suggested the Kim regime was close to developing a rocket capable of hitting the US.

“Everyone understands the catastrophic consequences of such recklessness,” Mr Lavrov said, apparently referencing Mr Trump’s tweet against North Korea, which included a number insulting Mr Kim by calling him “Rocket Man”.

The EU also welcomed the announcement about the meeting, calling it a “positive development”.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, in a statement, said that “the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula” is hopefully the outcome.

She also welcomed another summit planned for April between Mr Kim and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in to take place near the border between the two Koreas.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said news of the possible meeting gave reasons to be hopeful about Korea. “Regarding North and South Korea and also the possibility of a meeting with the President of the United States, you can see that a cohesive international position, including sanctions, can lead to glimmers of hope,” she said.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said South Korea will make sure if the US summit does take place, “it’s a meaningful meeting with good outcome.”

Ms Kang noted that the “the exact timing and the place [of the US summit] will need a lot of consideration”.

“Well done, President Trump. You’re on the way to a historical meeting no US president has ever done,” former NBA star Dennis Rodman told the Associated Press. Mr Rodman is one of very few Americans to have met Mr Kim and did so twice – in 2013 and 2014. He said he hoped for a return trip for more of his “basketball diplomacy”.

Though Republicans in Congress also praised the diplomatic tactics of the US for getting the invitation and cited it as proof that sanctions against Pyongyang were working, not everyone was optimistic about the meeting.

Democratic Senator Ed Markey said Mr Trump should treat it “as the beginning of a long diplomatic process” and his usual “unscripted” remarks and inflammatory tweets that could derail it.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, said the Republican president would need help from others in the U.S. government if he is to go head-to-head with Kim over such a complex issue as nuclear weapons and geostrategy.

“It will require the President to rely on the expertise within the State Department, the Intelligence Community, and throughout the government, and not simply on his own estimation of his skills as a ‘deal maker’.” Mr Schiff said.