U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday expressed “confidence” in an ultimate “deal” with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), despite reports that Pyongyang fired projectiles.
Trump tweeted on Saturday morning that “anything in this very interesting world is possible…Deal will happen!”
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier that the DPRK has fired unidentified short-range projectiles off its east coast.
In a short statement, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that “We will continue to monitor as necessary.”
For its part, South Korea’s presidential Blue House has expressed great concern over the DPRK’s firing of projectiles, saying they escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The U.S. State Department said on Friday that U.S. Special Representative for the DPRK Stephen Biegun “will travel to Tokyo May 7-8 and Seoul May 9-10 to meet with Japanese and R.O.K. officials to discuss efforts to advance the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea.”
The second summit between Trump and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un in late February failed to reach a deal on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Choe Son Hui, vice minister of the DPRK’s Foreign Ministry, has said recently that Pyongyang’s determination to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula remains unchanged if Washington takes a new stand in future negotiations.
“When the time comes, we will put it into practice. But this is possible only under the condition that the U.S. changes their current method of calculation and formulates a new stand,” Choe said.
“We could wait until the end of this year to see whether the U.S. makes a courageous decision,” Choe said.
