Trump-Kim summit: Mike Pence contradicted Trump on military drills, says GOP senator – live
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Version 33 of 37. A Republican senator has said that vice president Mike Pence told Republican senators that military exercises “will continue in South Korea”. .@VP was very clear: regular readiness training and training exchanges will continue. https://t.co/9tnKhqxnMz After his meeting with Kim, Trump announced the suspension of US military exercises with South Korea, declaring that the joint military exercises, involving planes flying long distances, were too expensive. “We will be saving a tremendous amount of money. Plus, it is very provocative,” Trump said. But Pence sent senators the opposite message, according to Gardner: Senator Gardner says that VP Pence told Republican senators that military exercises "will continue with South Korea". "Look forward to further comment and clarification from the president when he gets here." Pence’s press secretary has subsequently called senator Gardner’s summary of Pence’s message “false”: .@VP didn’t say this at the Senate lunch today https://t.co/WxsEFy5c9J A CNN source in the Republican meeting says Pence’s answer on the war games question was not clear: Trump, speaking on speakerphone on Sen. Risch’s iPhone, called into Senate GOP lunch and praised NK summit, touted its success, per source who attended VP Pence fielded questions, included what Trump meant by suspending “war games”There wasn’t a clear answer, source said Meanwhile a Pentagon statement sidesteps the whole question: First Pentagon statement on North Korea summit sidesteps the president's declaration that the fall military exercises with South Korea are off. pic.twitter.com/cEvQ4Vo0SY About four years ago, and a year before he announced his presidential candidacy, Trump tweeted: Dennis Rodman was either drunk or on drugs (delusional) when he said I wanted to go to North Korea with him. Glad I fired him on Apprentice! Here’s an exchange between Trump and former Fox News journalist Greta van Susteren that is difficult to follow: Oh my, this exchange between @realDonaldTrump and @greta pic.twitter.com/VfdEcNQvyu The national Republican party, through its official Twitter account, compares Trump’s meeting with Kim to Reagan’s confrontation with Gorbachev: And now, exactly 31 years later, @realDonaldTrump is making history as well. https://t.co/yDMd6rd3KT "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" - #OnThisDay in 1987 #POTUS Ronald Reagan spoke at the Berlin Wall calling for the reunification of East and West Germany. pic.twitter.com/cpcKAMSB4a Reuters reports that Iran has warned the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, against trusting Trump, saying he could cancel their denuclearisation agreement within hours: Tehran cited its own experience in offering the advice to Kim a month after Washington withdrew from a similar deal with Iran. Trump and Kim pledged at a meeting in Singapore on Tuesday to work towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula while Washington committed to provide security guarantees for its old enemy. “We don’t know what type of person the North Korean leader is negotiating with. It is not clear that he would not cancel the agreement before returning home,” Iranian government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht was quoted as saying by IRNA new agency. Nobakht questioned Trump’s credibility. “This man does not represent the American people, and they will surely distance themselves from him at the next elections,” he said. Here is a statement from the parents of Otto Warmbier, the exchange student who died days after being released from North Korea detention in June 2017: Statement from Fred and Cindy Warmbier, the parents of Otto Warmbier: “We appreciate President Trump's recent comments about our family. We are proud of Otto and miss him. Hopefully something positive can come from this.” The Pentagon insists defense secretary Mattis was not surprised by Trump’s signing an agreement to halt joint military exercises with South Korea, CNN reports: DOD: Secretary Mattis “was not surprised” by President Trump’s announcement on suspension of military drills; “the Secretary is in full alignment with the President to meet his goal which is denuclearization of the Peninsula”, adding “there were no surprises.” A midnight errand for the governor of Guam: At 3:13 am local, the governor of Guam, Eddie Calvo, is boarding Air Force One to visit with the president during his refuel stop. Former presidential candidate and current senator Bernie Sanders releases a statement calling the summit “light on substance” yet embracing it as “a positive step”: Bernie calls Trump-Jong-Un summit “a positive step” pic.twitter.com/vjZZU2ikjY Update: applause for diplomacy from a Democrat: Props for Trump from one of the leading doves in Congress, Democratic @RepBarbaraLee: “As a lifelong advocate for diplomacy, I am pleased that the U.S. has started direct talks with North Korea to denuclearize & deescalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula." Aboard Air Force One, Trump says he’s “dealt with” Kim starting 90 days ago. It’s not clear what he means by that – on 24 May Trump sent a letter canceling the summit that just happened, after multiple previous communiques from Kim trashing the US side. Q Any lingering concerns about Kim? Trump told us on AF1 before leaving Singapore: “I can only tell you that from the time I’ve dealt with him, which is really starting like 90 days ago it’s been very strong. I think he wants to get it done.” pic.twitter.com/7O40JgIHJ7 The Senate majority whip is not sure whether he agrees with the president about Kim’s talents: Cornyn on whether Kim is "very talented:" "I have no earthly idea." https://t.co/uRxRaDodqW https://t.co/tSzvYCsLbx Noah Rothman, co-editor of the conservative leaning Commentary magazine, calls the summit “a disgrace”: What happened on Monday in Singapore was a disgrace. What was billed as a summit designed to secure a negotiated end to the crisis on the Korean Peninsula—a crisis that the North Korean regime alone inaugurated and aggravates—became Kim Jong-un’s coming-out party. Kim arrived in Singapore to great fanfare; paparazzi snapped his picture and onlookers called his name like he was a boyband heartthrob. The man who murdered his half-brother, uncle, and ex-girlfriend, among scores more, took selfies with democratic figures and toured the town before the main event: a meeting with the leader of the free world. Donald Trump, the legitimately elected president of the world’s most powerful free republic, beamed as he pressed the flesh with the warden of the world’s largest prison—a country with an annual GDP comparable to that of Eugene, Oregon. They dined together on short rib confit and soy-braised codfish—a Korean favorite, in deference to Kim. Trump said it was “my honor” to greet Kim, who is a “very talented man.” “We have a terrific relationship,” he added. They took photographs before a backdrop of American and North Korean flags. It was a scene suggestive of a relationship between equals, which is something Americans with a cursory understanding of history and a functioning moral compass have previously denied the Kim dynasty. Read the full piece here. The Associated Press contributes an analysis concluding that Kim left Singapore with a lot to show for his trip: All North Korean leader Kim Jong Un really needed from his unprecedented summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday was to keep his nuclear arsenal intact for the time being and get a decent handshake photo to show he has truly arrived on the world stage. To probably even his own surprise, he got that and a whole lot more. While offering no solid promises to abandon his hard-won nuclear arsenal any time soon, Kim got to stand as an equal with the leader of the world’s most powerful nation, received indications that the future of joint U.S.-South Korea military maneuvers may be in doubt and was showered with effusive praise from a president who just last year derided him as “little rocket man.” If he was forced to negotiate by U.S. pressure, it certainly wasn’t obvious. And if any skeptics of the diplomatic campaign he launched with his neighbors early this year remain inside his regime back home, the summit went a long way toward sidelining them even further. All of this from a 34-year-old leader who was widely written off as too young and too inexperienced to last very long when he assumed power after his enigmatic father, Kim Jong Il, died in late 2011. Read the whole piece here. Republican leaders praised Donald Trump for pursuing the summit with Kim Jong-un, but nonetheless cautioned against trusting the North Korean regime outright.“As negotiations now advance, there is only one acceptable final outcome: complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization,” the House speaker, Paul Ryan, said in a statement. “We must always be clear that we are dealing with a brutal regime with a long history of deceit.” “Only time will tell if North Korea is serious this time, and in the meantime we must continue to apply maximum economic pressure,” he added. “The road ahead is a long one, but today there is hope that the president has put us on a path to lasting peace in the Korean peninsula.”The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, commended Trump for taking “an historic first step” toward negotiations with Pyongyang. But he, too, suggested the next round of negotiations “will test whether we can get to a verifiable deal”.“If North Korea does not prove willing to follow through, we and our allies must be prepared to restore the policy of maximum pressure,” he said. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, was more skeptical about what had been achieved from the summit.“While I am glad the president and Kim Jong-un were able to meet, it is difficult to determine what of concrete nature has occurred,” Corker said. Car fancy: WATCH: President Trump shows North Korea's Kim Jong Un his presidential limo in Singapore https://t.co/pVDwUkeV0g pic.twitter.com/Kgl5CneMns Minority leader Chuck Schumer is on the floor of the Senate talking about the Singapore summit. “We must be clear-eyed on what a diplomatic success with North Korea looks like,” he says. That would be “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula, he says. “It’s imperative that we actually get action here, not just photo ops,” Schumer says. He points out there are no details in Trump’s signed statement about the definition of “complete denuclearization.” “Unfortunately the entire document is short on details,” Schumer says. “...It is worrisome, very worrisome, that this joint statement is so imprecise.” Schumer says that Trump has drawn a false equivalency between the “legitimate” joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States on one hand, and “illegal” North Korean nuclear testing on the other. Here’s a quickie selection of reactions in the United States to the Trump-Kim summit: ‘If Obama had done that...” The conservative pundit Erick Erickson: The whole design of this is offensive. The President pees in the punch bowl of the G7, insists the Russians come back into the organization, then flies off to Singapore to make kissy face with a man who routinely murders his own people. Had Barack Obama done that, Republicans would be demanding his impeachment. I generally think Donald Trump has run a pretty mature foreign policy that works for American interests. But this past week has been a diplomatic farce, and I suspect those generic ballot numbers that have had Democrats panicking are suddenly going to swing back in their direction. ‘Demand rigorous verification’ Representative Jackie Speier of California: .@POTUS deserves credit for agreeing to #NKSummit &deserves shame for throwing a hissy fit w/our closest allies & using such degrading language. This must be more than a photo op w/Kim. We demand rigorous verification of denuclearization w/24 hour monitoring & no boundaries. ‘Cringe’ The conservative-leaning Naval War college professor Tom Nichols: I just watched a completely clueless President proclaim a special bond with one of the most ruthless murderers in the world, whom he thinks is “a talented man” who “loves his country.” If I cringed any harder my spine would snap. ‘Giving away the store for a photo op’ Daniel Serwer, director of the conflict management program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies: President Trump today agreed to suspend US military exercises with South Korea during negotiations with the North and to provide Pyongyang with unspecified security guarantees in exchange for an equally vague commitment to denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. He and Kim Jong-un also got their photo op, which featured a stunning array of American and Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea flags. The quid pro quo is clear: the US will be guaranteeing the permanence of one of the most brutal dictatorships on earth and reducing its commitment to its South Korean allies in exchange for some still-to-be-determined constraints on North Korean missile and nuclear weapons capabilities. The joint statement contains no reference at all to human rights issues or North Korean abductions, though it does refer to repatriation of the remains of prisoners of war and those missing in action from the Korean War. All you need to know about this deal is what the Republicans would be saying if President Obama had negotiated it. ‘Art of the Deal’? Peter Singer, fellow with the progressive New America foundation: You gotta give up something to get nothing.The new Art of the Deal. ‘Trump got hosed’ Politico editor Blake Hounshell: Waking up this morning, it sure seems like Trump got hosed. Anyone see differently? ‘Jesus f**king Christ’ Dan Drezner, professor of international politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University: Jesus f**king Christ. https://t.co/B8lsyOvagk A preview of the Guardian Weekly front page: Latest issue hits the presses. The US-North Korea denuclearisation summit is lead story. World affairs editor @julianborger assesses the meeting and the challenges still to be tackled https://t.co/eev430lBK3 pic.twitter.com/WnjgbymL7T |