Tweet diplomacy | Trump: Good chance Kim will do ‘what is right’

President Donald Trump said yesterday there’s “a good chance” that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will “do what is right for his people and for humanity” and make moves toward peace.

In a pair of morning tweets, Trump says he received a message from Chinese President Xi Jinping that a meeting Xi had with Kim this week “went very well.”

Trump says that according to Xi, the North Korean leader “looks forward” to meeting the American president. The White House has said Trump plans to meet Kim by May amid nuclear tensions between the two nations.

Trump has agreed to historic talks after South Korean officials relayed that Kim was committed to ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons and was willing to halt nuclear and missile tests.

In the meanwhile, Trump says, “unfortunately, maximum sanctions and pressure must be maintained at all cost!” The Trump administration has slapped sanctions on companies across the globe to punish illicit trade with North Korea.

“For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility,” Trump tweeted. “Now there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. Look forward to our meeting!”

NUCLEAR ACTIVITY

Increased activity at a North Korean nuclear site has once again caught the attention of analysts and renewed concerns about the complexities of denuclearization talks ahead of Trump-Kim summit in the coming weeks.

Satellite imagery taken last month suggests the North has begun preliminary testing of an experimental light water reactor and possibly brought another reactor online at its Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center.

Both could be used to produce the fissile materials needed for nuclear bombs.

The findings come at a particularly sensitive time. Trump and Kim are planning to meet by May, according to officials, and denuclearization will likely be the biggest topic on their agenda if they do meet. North Korea tested its biggest nuclear device to date last September. Pyongyang claims it was an H-bomb.

While the North hasn’t conducted any tests since, or test-launched any long-range missiles since Nov. 28, the heightened activity at the Yongbyon complex could be ominous.

According to an analysis in Jane’s Intelligence Review published earlier this month, a testing program is now underway at the experimental reactor, which means it could become operational with “little warning later in 2018 or in 2019.” It said the preliminary testing follows increased activity throughout 2017.

In a separate report posted on 38 North, a website that specializes in North Korea news and analysis, experts said they have detected activity at another reactor in the Yongbyon complex, which is located north of Pyongyang, that could be an even bigger concern.

Imagery of Yongbyon’s 5-megawatt reactor suggests it was brought into operation very recently. The website said that would mean “North Korea has resumed production of plutonium presumably for its nuclear weapons program.” MDT/Agencies