Trump really wants the (North Korean) show to go on
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 10:50 AM ET, Fri May 18, 2018
(CNN)President Donald Trump wants Kim Jong Un to understand he really wants them to meet.
In a startling spell of televised negotiating, Trump tried to keep alive his planned summit with Kim next month, offering "very strong" protections to Kim if he seals a deal. In another apparent concession, Trump also publicly broke with John Bolton, two days after North Korea expressed "repugnance" for his national security adviser's hardline position.
The President's prolonged discourse on North Korea in an Oval Office photo-op Thursday indicated just how much he has invested in the summit -- which Pyongyang threatened to blow up on Wednesday over US-South Korean military exercises and American demands for an irreversible decommissioning of North Korea's nuclear weapons.
His apparent movement toward Pyongyang's position came after two days of unusual restraint from the President, as his top officials tried to decipher Kim's latest move and ultimately concluded the North Korean leader was grandstanding but that the summit would go on.
At one point, it seemed Trump was reaching out directly to Kim himself over the airwaves, seeking to reassure him about his central concern -- his grip on power -- and offering reasons for him not to cancel their historic meeting, set for June 12 in Singapore.
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https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/18/politics/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-north-korea-summit/index.html
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