By Trevor Hunnicutt and Josh Smith
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump made repeated invitations to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as he prepared to visit South Korea this week, with officials in Seoul serving as his cheerleaders.
Publicly, there has been radio silence from the North so far and American and South Korean officials have said there are no concrete preparations underway. Ahead of Trump's departure from the U.S., North Korea test fired what it said was a new hypersonic ballistic
missile.
But Trump has used his swing through Asia to underscore his willingness to meet North Korea's dictator, hoping to revive the string of summits that the pair held during the president's first term.
"I just had a good relationship with him," Trump said on Monday. "I would love to see him, if he wants to, if he even gets this message. We haven't mentioned anything, but he knows I'm going over there. If he'd like to meet, I'd love to meet him."
When asked what he could use to bring Kim to the table, Trump said sanctions.
"That's pretty big to start off with," he said. "I would say that's about as big as you get.”
The pair held summits in 2018 and 2019 before negotiations broke down over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons arsenal. North Korea is under heavy international sanctions over those weapons, as well as its ballistic missiles.
Last month, Kim signalled an openness to meeting Trump if the U.S. dropped its demands that he give up his nuclear arsenal, while rejecting any talks with South Korea.
"Personally, I still have fond memories of U.S. President Trump," he said in a speech, according to the Korean Central News Agency, a state media outlet. "If the United States drops the absurd obsession with denuclearising us and accepts reality, and wants genuine peaceful coexistence, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the United States."
There is no sign, however, that talks will take place. A U.S. official said they considered but never scheduled a visit to the Demilitarized Zone on the border between South and North Korea.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who took office in June and has sought to ease tensions with the North, has proposed that Trump use his visit to South Korea to engage with Kim.
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who handles relations with the North, said Pyongyang was likely to issue a statement on Trump's offer to talk as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told parliament on Tuesday that Trump's calling North Korea a "nuclear power" and the possibility of easing sanctions could provide an incentive for Kim to come to the table.
"However, compared to 2017 and 2018, North Korea has formed a military alliance with Russia and strengthened its relationship with China," he said.
On Monday, North Korea's foreign minister met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin and Kim sealed a strategic partnership treaty last year, which included a mutual defence pact, and North Korea has sent soldiers, artillery, ammunition and missiles to Russia to support Moscow's war in Ukraine.
On Tuesday in Tokyo, Trump met with the families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea decades ago.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
