Trump 'likes' Kim Jong Un, says South Korean President Moon Jae-in - USA TODAY

Thomas Maresca Special to USA TODAY

Published 5:34 AM EST Dec 3, 2018

President Donald Trump “likes” and “has a very friendly view” of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and wants to grant Kim’s wishes if Pyongyang scraps its nuclear arsenal, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said.

Moon spoke with reporters during the weekend while en route to New Zealand from the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina, saying that Trump had asked him to forward a message to Kim during a meeting on the sidelines of the gathering on Friday.

“The message was that President Trump has a very friendly view of Chairman Kim and that he likes him, and so he wishes Chairman Kim would implement the rest of their agreement and that he would make what Chairman Kim wants come true," Moon told reporters Saturday.

Moon’s comments came as diplomatic relations between Pyongyang and Washington appear to have hit an impasse. Trump and Kim met at a historic summit in Singapore in June, after which North Korea agreed to work toward a “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” and the U.S. promised to provide security guarantees, but progress has been stalled since.

Both sides held high-level talks since the summit, but Pyongyang is looking for relief of punishing international sanctions in exchange for steps it has already taken, such as dismantling a nuclear testing site, while Washington is holding out for complete denuclearization.
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In the meantime, North Korea has continued to run its ballistic missile program at several secret bases, according to a recent report from Washington think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies, while Pyongyang announced the test of a new “ultramodern tactical weapon” earlier this month amidst the stalled diplomatic efforts.

Moon told reporters that “corresponding measures” might be given for steps that North Korea takes toward completely dismantling its nuclear weapons program, but these did not have to include sanctions relief.

“For example, postponing or reducing U.S.-[ and joint South Korean] military exercises may be a sort of corresponding measure, or humanitarian assistance, or some kind of non-political exchange, whether it is a sports exchange or an art troupe,” he said.

A South Korean train crossed the heavily-guarded border into North Korea for the first time in more than a decade Friday, as experts from the South begin a survey of railway tracks in the North. Seoul is looking to push ahead with a project to connect the two countries’ railway networks despite stringent United Nations sanctions. The trip required special permission from the U.N. to carry equipment and fuel into the North.

Moon also said that it was still possible that Kim could visit Seoul before the end of the year. The meeting, which would mark the first time a North Korean leader has visited the South's capital since the end of the Korean War of 1950-1953, had been announced after an inter-Korean summit in June but appeared to be postponed in the midst of the Pyongyang-Washington stalemate.

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On Sunday, Trump said he expected a second meeting with Kim to take place in early 2019 and that he expected Kim to visit the U.S "at some point" in the future.

"We’re getting along very well," he said. "We have a good relationship."

Trump said he expected a second summit with Kim to be held in January or February. He did not clarify if that summit could potentially be held in the U.S. but said: "We have actually talked about three sites. We haven’t determined the sites."

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