President Donald Trump said Sunday a US team was in North Korea to plan a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, raising expectations that the on-off-on meeting would indeed take place.
The State Department said earlier that a team was in Panmunjom, which straddles the border inside the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, separating the North and South Korea. One can cross the border simply by stepping across a painted line, but moving beyond several footsteps into the North at Panmunjom would be rare for US officials.
Trump withdrew from a planned June 12 Singapore summit with Kim last Thursday, but quickly announced that it could get back on track. His tweet Sunday afternoon, which offered praise for the longtime US adversary, was the latest signal that his concerns about the North’s stance toward the summit had been allayed.
“Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself,” he tweeted. “I truly believe North Korea has brilliant potential and will be a great economic and financial Nation one day. Kim Jong Un agrees with me on this. It will happen!”
South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, gave details about his surprise meeting Saturday with Kim in the Panmunjom truce village, saying Kim had committed to sitting down with Trump and to a “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tapped veteran American diplomat Sung Kim to handle pre-summit negotiations. On a separate but complementary track was the CIA team Pompeo set up last year when he headed the spy agency. And on a third track was a White House logistical group sent to Singapore on Sunday to prepare in case the summit takes place. It was led by Joe Hagin, White House deputy chief of staff for operations.
Kim, the US ambassador to the Philippines, also served as ambassador to South Korea and was part of the US negotiating team that last held substantive denuclearization talks with North Korea during the George W. Bush administration in 2005.
The Korean leaders’ second summit in a month saw bear hugs and broad smiles. But their quickly arranged meeting Saturday appeared to highlight a sense of urgency on both sides of the world’s most heavily armed border.
The talks, which Moon said Kim Jong Un requested, capped a whirlwind 24 hours of diplomatic back and forth. They allowed Moon to push for a US-North Korean summit that he sees as the best way to ease animosity that had some fearing a war last year.
Kim may see a meeting with Trump as necessary to easing pressure from crushing sanctions and to winning security assurances in a region surrounded by enemies.
Moon told reporters that Kim “again made clear his commitment to a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” Moon added that Kim said he’s willing to cooperate to end confrontation and work toward peace for the sake of the successful summit with Trump.
Moon said he told Kim that Trump has a “firm resolve” to end hostile relations with North Korea and initiate economic cooperation if Kim implements “complete denuclearization.”
“What Kim is unclear about is that he has concerns about whether his country can surely trust the United States over its promise to end hostile relations (with North Korea) and provide a security guarantee if they do denuclearization,” Moon said.
“During the South Korea-US summit, President Trump said the US is willing to clearly put an end to hostile relations (between the US and North Korea) and help (the North) achieve economic prosperity if North Korea conducts denuclearization,” he said.
Kim, in a dispatch issued by the North’s state-run news service earlier Sunday, “expressed his fixed will on the historic (North Korea)-US summit talks.” During Saturday’s inter-Korean summit, the Korean leaders agreed to “positively cooperate with each other as ever to improve (North Korea)-US relations and establish (a) mechanism for permanent and durable peace.”
They agreed to have their top officials meet again June 1. Moon said military generals and Red Cross officials from the Koreas will also meet separately to discuss how to ease military tensions and resume reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
Saturday’s Korean summit came hours after South Korea expressed relief over revived talks for a Trump-Kim meeting.
Despite repeated references to “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” by the North, it remains unclear whether Kim will ever agree to fully abandon his nuclear arsenal.
The North has previously used the term to demand the United States pull out its 28,500 troops in South Korea and withdraw its so-called nuclear umbrella security commitment to South Korea and Japan. The North hasn’t openly repeated those same demands after Kim’s sudden outreach to Seoul and Washington.
Moon has insisted Kim can be persuaded to abandon his nuclear facilities, materials and bombs in a verifiable and irreversible way in exchange for credible security and economic guarantees. Moon said Sunday that the North’s disarmament could still be a difficult process even if Pyongyang, Washington and Seoul don’t differ over what “complete denuclearization” of the peninsula means.
Before he canceled the summit, Trump did not rule out an incremental approach that would provide incentives along the way to the North.
Following an unusually provocative 2017 in which Kim’s engineers tested a purported thermonuclear warhead and three long-range missiles theoretically capable of striking mainland US cities, the North Korean leader has engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent months. He has had the summits with Moon and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as well as two meetings with Pompeo.
US team in North Korea to plan Trump-Kim summit
US team in North Korea to plan Trump-Kim summit
- “Our United States team has arrived in North Korea to make arrangements for the Summit between Kim Jong Un and myself,” Donald Trump tweeted
- Trump has a “firm resolve” to end hostile relations with North Korea and initiate economic cooperation if Kim implements “complete denuclearization”
Trump signs a bill funding the government for 6 months, avoiding a shutdown
- The bill largely keeps government funding at levels set during Joe Biden’s presidency, though with changes
- Senate Democrats argued for days over whether to force a shutdown, livid that Republicans in the House had drafted and passed the spending measure without their input
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has signed into law legislation funding the government through the end of September, ending the threat of a partial government shutdown and capping off a struggle in Congress that deeply divided Democrats.
Harrison Fields, White House principal deputy press secretary, said in a post on X that Trump signed the continuing resolution Saturday.
The bill largely keeps government funding at levels set during Joe Biden’s presidency, though with changes. It trims non-defense spending by about $13 billion from the previous year and increases defense spending by about $6 billion, which are marginal changes when talking about a topline spending level of nearly $1.7 trillion.
The Senate cleared the legislation on Friday in a 54-46 party line vote, with 10 members of the Senate Democratic caucus helping the bill advance to passage despite opposition from within their party — most vocally from colleagues in the House, who exhorted them to reject the bill out of hand.
Senate Democrats argued for days over whether to force a shutdown, livid that Republicans in the House had drafted and passed the spending measure without their input. Democrats said the legislation shortchanges health care, housing and other priorities and gives Trump wide leeway to redirect federal spending even as his administration and the Department of Government Efficiency rapidly dismantle congressionally approved agencies and programs.
In the end, enough of the Democratic senators decided a government shutdown would be even worse than letting the funding bill pass.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said a shutdown would have given the Trump administration the ability to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel non-essential, furloughing staff with no promise they would ever be rehired.
“A shutdown will allow DOGE to shift into overdrive,” Schumer said. “Donald Trump and Elon Musk would be free to destroy vital government services at a much faster rate.”
Passage of the funding bill through the House earlier in the week was a victory for Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, who managed to hold Republicans together and muscle the bill to passage without support from Democrats — something they’ve rarely been able to achieve in the past.
Chinese military jet crashes, pilot safely ejects
- The fighter jet, from the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command, crashed in an open area in the southern island province of Hainan
- The southern command oversees some of the country’s most sensitive areas including the South China Sea
BEIJING: A Chinese naval fighter jet crashed on Saturday during a training exercise but its pilot successfully ejected from the plane, the military said.
The fighter jet, from the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command, crashed in an open area in the southern island province of Hainan, the navy said in a statement on social media.
The southern command oversees some of the country’s most sensitive areas including the South China Sea, where there has been a spate of violent clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in recent years around disputed reefs and islands in the area.
“The pilot successfully ejected, and no collateral damage was caused on the ground,” the statement said.
An investigation into the cause of the crash has been launched and the navy is organizing efforts to handle the aftermath, it added.
China has for years sought to expand its presence in contested areas of the sea, brushing aside an international ruling that its claim to most of the waterway has no legal basis.
In recent months, Beijing has more firmly asserted its territorial claims in the South China Sea, where countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines are defending their own claims.
Last month, the Philippine Coast Guard condemned “dangerous” maneuvers by a Chinese Navy helicopter it said had flown within meters of a surveillance flight carrying a group of journalists over the contested Scarborough Shoal.
Scholz calls on Russia to work toward ‘just peace’ in Ukraine
- “It is now up to Russia to put an end to its daily attacks,” Scholz said
BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday called on Russia to finally work toward a just peace in Ukraine after three years of war.
“It is now up to Russia to put an end to its daily attacks against Ukrainian cities and civil infrastructure and to finally take the way of a lasting and just peace,” Scholz said in a statement after participating in a virtual summit hosted by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Pope Francis, showing plans to stay on, starts new Catholic reform process
- Francis approved the new process for reforms on Tuesday from Rome’s Gemelli hospital
- His friends and biographers have insisted, however, that he has no plans to step down
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis approved a new three-year process to consider reforms for the global Catholic Church, the Vatican said on Saturday, in a sign the 88-year-old pontiff plans to continue on as pope despite his ongoing battle with double pneumonia.
Francis has extended the work of the Synod of Bishops, a signature initiative of his 12-year papacy, which has discussed reforms such as the possibility of women serving as Catholic deacons and better inclusion of LGBTQ people in the Church.
The synod, which held an inconclusive Vatican summit of bishops on the future of the Church last October, will now hold consultations with Catholics across the world for the next three years, before hosting a new summit in 2028.
Francis approved the new process for reforms on Tuesday from Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where he is being treated, the Vatican said on Saturday.
The pope has been in hospital for more than a month and his prolonged public absence has stoked speculation that he could choose to follow his predecessor Benedict XVI and resign from the papacy.
His friends and biographers have insisted, however, that he has no plans to step down. The approval of a new three-year process indicated he wants to continue on, despite his age and the possibility he might face a long, fraught road to recovery from pneumonia, given his age and other medical conditions.
“The Holy Father ... is helping push the renewal of the Church toward a new missionary impulse,” Cardinal Mario Grech, the official leading the reform process, told the Vatican’s media outlet. “This is truly a sign of hope.”
BRINGING CHURCH ‘UP TO DATE’
Francis, who has been pope since 2013, is widely seen as trying to open up the staid global Church to the modern world.
However, the pope’s reform agenda has upset some Catholics, including a few senior cardinals. They have accused him of watering down the Church’s teachings on issues such as same-sex marriage, and divorce and remarriage.
Massimo Faggioli, a US academic who has followed the papacy closely, said the new reform process is a way for the pope to signal that he is still the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
“Francis’ pontificate is not over, and this decision he just made for what happens between now and 2028 will have an effect on the rest of (it),” said Faggioli, a professor at Villanova University.
After last October’s inconclusive Vatican summit, which yielded no concrete action on possible reforms, Francis had faced questions of whether his papacy was running out of steam.
Vatican officials had said at the time that Francis was still considering future changes, and was waiting to receive a series of 10 expected reports about possible reforms this June.
The latest medical bulletins from the Vatican on the pope’s condition in hospital have said he is improving and is no longer in immediate danger of death.
They have not said when he will be discharged from hospital.
Well-wishers have been gathering to offer support for Francis outside the hospital each day during the pope’s recovery.
Stefania Gianni, an Italian being treated for cancer at the facility, said on Saturday that Francis “has taken great steps to bring the Church up to date with the times.”
“He is a great man and a great pope, and the Church still needs him,” she said.
Putin will have to ‘come to table,’ UK PM says hosting coalition call
- While Ukraine had shown it was the “party of peace” by agreeing to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, “Putin is the one trying to delay,” Starmer said
- “If Putin is serious about peace, I think it’s very simple, he has to stop his barbaric attacks on Ukraine and agree to a ceasefire, and the world is watching“
LONDON: UK premier Keir Starmer said the “ball was in Russia’s court” and that President Vladimir Putin would “sooner or later” have to “come to the table,” after a virtual summit on Saturday to drum up support for a coalition willing to protect any eventual ceasefire in Ukraine.
The British prime minister told some 26 fellow leaders as they joined the group call hosted by Downing Street that they should focus on how to strengthen Ukraine, protect any ceasefire and keep up the pressure on Moscow.
While Ukraine had shown it was the “party of peace” by agreeing to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, “Putin is the one trying to delay,” he said.
“If Putin is serious about peace, I think it’s very simple, he has to stop his barbaric attacks on Ukraine and agree to a ceasefire, and the world is watching,” he added.
Military chiefs will now meet again on Thursday in the UK as the coalition moves into “the operational phase,” Starmer said after the talks.
“The group that met this morning is a bigger group than we had two weeks ago, there is a stronger collective resolve and new commitments were put on the table this morning,” he added.
EU chief European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a message on X that Russia has to show “it is willing to support a ceasefire leading to a just and lasting peace.”
And Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof also said on X it was “now important to continue to exert pressure on Russia to come to the negotiating table.”
Overnight fighting continued in the relentless three-year war, with Russia saying it had taken two more villages in its Kursk border region where it has launched an offensive to wrest back seized territory.
As moves have gathered pace for a ceasefire, Moscow has pushed this week to retake a large part of the land that Ukraine originally captured in western Kursk.
But Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who joined the talks, denied Saturday any “encirclement” of his troops in the Kursk region.
“Our troops continue to hold back Russian and North Korean groupings in the Kursk region,” he said on social media.
The Russian defense ministry said troops took control over the villages of Zaoleshenka and Rubanshchina — north and west of the town of Sudzha, the main town that Moscow reclaimed this week.
Kyiv meanwhile said its air force had overnight downed 130 Iranian-made Russian-launched Shahed drones over 14 regions of the country.
Putin has called on embattled Ukrainian troops in Kursk to “surrender,” while his US counterpart Donald Trump urged the Kremlin to spare their lives.
“The Kremlin’s complete disregard for President Trump’s ceasefire proposal only serves to demonstrate that Putin is not serious about peace,” Starmer said late Friday ahead of the call.
Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have been leading efforts to assemble a so-called “coalition of the willing” ever since Trump opened direct negotiations with Moscow last month.
They say the group is necessary — along with US support — to provide Ukraine with security guarantees by deterring Putin from violating any ceasefire.
Starmer and Macron have said they are willing to put British and French troops on the ground in Ukraine but it is not clear if other countries are keen on doing the same.
Macron also called on Russia late Friday to accept the proposal for a ceasefire, and stop making statements aimed at “delaying the process.”
The French president also demanded that Moscow stop its “acts of violence” in Ukraine.
Germany on Friday likewise criticized Putin’s response to the US-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine as “at best a delaying tactic.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday he was “cautiously optimistic” about reaching a truce, but acknowledged there was “a lot of work that remains to be done.”
Starmer has said he welcomes any offer of support for the coalition, raising the prospect that some countries could contribute logistics or surveillance.
But Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reiterated after the call, which she joined, that Italy’s “participation in a possible military force on the ground is not envisaged.”
British Commonwealth partners Canada, Australia and New Zealand have been involved in early talks and dialled into the summit.
NATO chief Mark Rutte and European Union chiefs von der Leyen and Antonio Costa also took part, along with the leaders of Germany, Spain, Portugal, Latvia, Romania, Turkiye and the Czech Republic among others.
