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US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un

With the date of a potential summit next month between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un fast approaching, the Trump administration appears to be slowly gearing up for the meeting.

“The White House National Security Council is organizing weekly meetings with related agencies [about the North Korea-US summit],” said a source who is familiar with the situation at the White House on Apr. 4. There are also reports that North Korea and American intelligence agencies initiated working-level meetings at the end of last month.

But the discussion inside the Trump administration and the contact between North Korea and the US have reportedly made little progress. These efforts will probably not gain traction until John Bolton, who has been appointed as National Security Advisor, begins his work on Apr. 9 and Mike Pompeo, the nominee for Secretary of State, is confirmed in a Senate hearing at the end of this month, said sources in Washington, D.C.

That is why very little information is being leaked about the location or date of the North Korea-US summit. In light of logistics and security, the locations where a summit could be held are limited to such places as Panmunjeom, Jeju Island, Seoul, Pyongyang and Washington. Both North Korea and the US are unlikely to prefer Pyongyang or Washington. Since China is reportedly hoping for the summit to be held in Beijing or Shanghai, the decision about the location of the talks appears to be somewhat complicated.

There is even some far-fetched speculation that the White House could make a surprise offer to hold the summit at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in order to increase the dramatic effect. Even if true, there is virtually no chance of North Korea accepting such an offer.

There are conflicting feelings in Washington about the North Korea-China summit being held before the inter-Korean summit and the North Korea-US summit. While officials are glad that Kim repeatedly expressed his commitment to denuclearization – first to South Korea’s special delegation to the North and again to Chinese president Xi Jinping – they think it is unfortunate that the North Korea-China summit, by being held first, makes the North Korea-US summit less valuable.

There are also concerns that China will attempt to ease sanctions against the North. “If North Korea and China attempt to undermine the American position, the US could play the card of sanctions against Chinese banks in order to maintain maximum pressure,” said one analyst at a think tank in Washington, D.C. Since China is aware of the mood in Washington, reports indicate, it has recently continued to communicate to the US its commitment to abide by the UN sanctions against the North.

As for the roadmap or plan for denuclearization that Trump will discuss when he sits across from Kim, the Trump administration has reportedly yet to work out the details. “There is a consensus in the administration about emphasizing that the agreement must be implemented quickly without playing for time to avoid repeating the failures of the past,” said a source who is familiar with affairs in the Trump administration.

“Since Trump wants to broker a deal directly with Kim, there’s actually a sense that there’s no need for the elaborate preparations taken on previous occasions,” another source said. Some experts predict that Trump and Kim’s summit is more likely to produce a communiqué containing the big picture and general direction rather than a specific agreement. The implementation measures that will be set for the first stage of denuclearization will probably be freezing reported and unreported facilities and setting a cap on the number of nuclear devices, these unnamed experts assert.

By Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent

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