‘I have confidence’ Kim Jong Un will honor agreement

Susan Walsh | Reuters

President Donald Trump makes a statement before saying goodbye to North Korea leader Kim Jong Un after their meeting in the Capella Hotel after their working lunch, on Sentosa island in Singapore June 12, 2018.

President Donald Trump tweeted Monday that he is confident North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would honor an agreement they reached last month to pursue denuclearization.

“I have confidence that Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake. We agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea,” Trump tweeted. “China, on the other hand, may be exerting negative pressure on a deal because of our posture on Chinese Trade-Hope Not!”

Trump tweet

The tweet comes after contentious talks between North Korean officials and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the first high-level meeting since Trump and Kim’s summit in Singapore.

While Pompeo touted the recent talks as being a positive and substantive step toward denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry quickly contradicted him, calling the talks “regrettable.”

Pompeo used different language about the North Korean talks in subsequent remarks to reporters during an unannounced visit to Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday.

“We still have a long ways to go. But that commitment that the North Koreans made, frankly that Chairman Kim personally made to President Trump, remains as when reinforced,” Pompeo said.

Pompeo also stressed that North Korea’s remarks were “mixed,” and represented an expression of Kim’s continuing “desire to complete the denuclearization to which he is so committed.”

As the Trump administration continues to court North Korea with praise and diplomacy, simmering trade tensions with between the U.S. and China officially boiled over last week when the U.S. tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods kicked in.

China immediately shot back, matching the Trump administration’s punitive taxes with an equivalent tariff package against U.S. imports. China’s Ministry of Commerce has accused the U.S. of having “launched the largest trade war in economic history.”