President Trump is postponing his second meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un until “early next year” due to an already-tight travel schedule, he told reporters Wednesday.
“We’re in no rush,” Trump said during a post-election press conference. “We’re in no hurry.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been laying the groundwork for a second summit since the United Nations General Assembly in September, when discussions with North Korean officials in New York opened the door to another face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the two countries. China and Russia used that week to call for an easing of sanctions on the pariah regime, but the president maintained Wednesday that the sanctions pressure remains in place.
“The sanctions are on; the missiles have stopped; the rockets have stopped; the hostages are home; the great heroes have been coming home,” he said. “I’m in no rush.”
American officials are escalating their efforts to crackdown on North Korean oil smuggling, in order to enforce energy sanctions. But China and Russia, which the Trump administration has accused of permitting such illicit oil imports to take place, argue that North Korea has earned the right to have an “easing” of the international sanctions currently in place.
“Negotiations are a two-way street,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the U.N. Security Council in September.
“Steps by the DPRK toward gradual disarmament should be followed by easing of sanctions.” Trump echoed that language to argue that North Korea has not yet earned a reprieve. “I’d love to take the sanctions off, but they have to be responsive, too,” he said Wednesday. “It’s a two-way street. But we’re not in any rush at all.”
