Trump, South Korea's Moon look for way to curb NKorea nukes

President Donald Trump's meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in comes amid uncertainty over whether the leader of North Korea is considering backing out of nuclear negotiations or restarting nuclear and missile tests.

Trump, in his first meeting with Moon since the unsuccessful US summit with Kim in Hanoi, said the US wants to keep economic sanctions in place to pressure Kim to denuclearize. But Trump said he retains good relations with Kim and didn't rule out a third summit or taking steps to ease food or other shortages in the repressive nation.

"We want sanctions to remain in place," Trump said Thursday at the White House. "I think that sanctions right now are at a level that's a fair level." Moon, for his part, has called for an easing of sanctions, including those holding back joint economic projects between North and South Korea.

But he didn't speak to the sanctions issue as he and Trump spoke with reporters at the start of their talks.

Trump said he would favor easing those sanctions at the right time but added: "This isn't the right time." He said he was open to discussing smaller steps, such as helping to ease North Korea's humanitarian problems, but that, in general, the U.S. wants sanctions to remain.

"There are various smaller deals that maybe could happen," Trump said.

"You could work out step-by-step pieces, but at this moment, we're talking about the big deal. The big deal is we have to get rid of the nuclear weapons." Negotiations on Pyongyang's nuclear program appear to be stalled, and there is uncertainty over whether Kim is considering backing out of talks or restarting nuclear and missile tests.

The Korean Central News Agency on Thursday said that at a party meeting on Wednesday, Kim stressed "self-reliance" in his country to "deal a telling blow to the hostile forces" that "go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring" North Korea "to its knees."
He cited a UN panel of experts that warned on March 5 that there has been a "massive increase in illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products and coal" rendering the latest U.N. sanctions "ineffective."