It’s A Start

Tillerson: ‘Talks’ but No Negotiations With Kim Jong Un

Says meeting will take “some weeks” to arrange.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made clear Friday that Donald Trump will be holding “talks” and not “negotiations” with Kim Jong Un, hours after the stunning announcement that the two leaders will meet. South Korean national-security adviser Chung Eui-Yong announced Thursday night that Trump had accepted the North Korean leader’s invitation to hold a summit before the end of May. Tillerson elaborated to reporters in Djibouti early on Friday: “President Trump has said for some time that he was open to talks and he would willingly meet with Kim when conditions were right. I think in the president’s judgment that time has arrived now.” Tillerson said Kim had changed his “posture in a fairly dramatic way” recently, which led to Trump deciding that it was time to meet the North Korean leader—and that the president made the decision himself. He said the meeting would take “some weeks” to arrange, adding: “Now it’s a question of agreeing on the timing of the first meeting between the two of them.”