Trump says relationship with N. Korea's Kim 'remains good'

US President Donald Trump said Friday his relationship with North Korea's Kim Jong Un "remains good," despite the failure of a summit last week between the two leaders.

North Korea's state media had earlier acknowledged for the first time the collapse of the high-stakes Hanoi summit, which ended without any agreement on reducing Pyongyang's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

"I have a feeling that our relationship with North Korea, Kim Jong Un and myself, I think it is a very good one. I think it remains good," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The meeting was supposed to build on the leaders' historic first meeting in Singapore last year.

Trump repeated his frequent claim that he had brought the US back from the brink of war with North Korea since coming to office.

"This was a disaster. I inherited a mess. It is straightening out a lot. We are doing very well there," he said.

"I inherited a mess with North Korea and right now you have no (missile) testing. You have no nothing."

Following the stalemate in Hanoi, researchers said this week that Pyongyang had started rebuilding the Sohae long-range rocket site after Kim had agreed last year to shut it as part of confidence-building measures.

"I would be surprised in a negative way if (Kim) did anything that was not per our understanding. But we'll see what happens," Trump added.

- 'Tough time' for Manafort -

Trump's remarks, which came as he was departing the White House to visit tornado-hit Alabama, also touched on the fractious US-China trade relationship, domestic politics and the Mueller investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia.

Asked about the months-long trade war with China, the president said he would not agree to any solution unless it was a good deal for the United States.

"I am confident but... if this isn't a great deal, I won't make a deal," Trump told reporters.

US and Chinese officials have said they are making progress toward a resolution, but a US diplomat in Beijing said earlier an agreement was not imminent.

Negotiations were extended through Sunday as officials race to reach a deal ahead of a deadline next week when US duty rates are due to rise sharply.

Trump's remarks came a day after his former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to nearly four years in prison by a federal judge for tax crimes and bank fraud in the highest profile case yet stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

"I feel very badly for Paul Manafort. I think it has been a very tough time for him," Trump said.

The Republican president also weighed in on the row engulfing the Democrats over anti-Semitism which has led to the party's biggest crisis since reclaiming the House majority two months ago.

The party passed a resolution against bigotry following an acrimonious debate over how to reprimand Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, who sparked a firestorm over repeated criticisms of Israel and a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington that exerts influence in US politics.

"The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party and an anti-Jewish party," Trump said.

The president was due to visit victims of last weekend's tornado that devastated Lee County in eastern Alabama last weekend, killing at least 23 people and injuring dozens.

High steaks: Meaty differences at Trump-Kim summit
Hanoi (AFP) March 8, 2019 - Sanctions and nuclear plants are not the only bones of contention between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un: while the US president likes his steaks well done, the North Korean leader has rarer tastes.

Paul Smart, the executive chef at the Metropole hotel in Hanoi, worked closely with two of the North Korean leader's personal chefs on the meals prepared during the two-day summit.

An intimate dinner on the first day featured marinated tender sirloin served with kimchi-stuffed pear, but the principals missed out on a foie gras and snow fish lunch as negotiations over the North's weapons programmes and international sanctions ground to a halt.

The team had strict instructions on how to prepare the meat, Smart said. "Kim had medium-rare to rare, very rare," he told AFP. "And Trump had well done."

The US president is known for his simple culinary tastes, but Kim's preference for bloodier meat showed an appreciation for quality, Smart said.

"He really likes to dine and experience cuisine for what it is."

According to his chefs -- both of them called Kim -- the North Korean leader has expensive tastes, Smart added. "He likes caviar, lobster, really luxurious product. Foie gras, he really likes to indulge in cuisine."

Each side in the Metropole kitchen prepared dishes of its own, with the North Koreans bringing all their own ingredients -- including the steaks, carried in a chilled metal container on board Kim's train.

The beef was "very natural and marbled, very red", Smart said, suggesting that -- as with Japanese wagyu -- cattle may be allowed to roam free in North Korea.

But aside from ox-drawn carts, bovines are a rare sight in the North Korean countryside.

The impoverished country consistently fails to produce enough food to feed itself and according to the United Nations, more than 10 million people -- around 40 percent of the population -- need food aid.

But for those who can afford it, there is an increasing number of coffee shops in Pyongyang, where restaurants offer cuisines ranging from Western to Japanese.

- Sanctions breach? -

Trump previously stayed at the Metropole during a state visit in 2017 -- in the $4,800 a night top suite -- when Smart stocked the freezer in his room with six tubs of vanilla ice cream to ensure his sweet tooth could be satisfied.

On Wednesday Trump ate every last morsel of his chocolate lava cake dessert, while the main course was almost certainly the first time the US president has consumed North Korean beef.

For an ordinary American citizen eating a steak provided by the North Korean leader could potentially violate the sanctions Washington has imposed on Pyongyang over its weapons programmes.

In June 2016, the US Treasury designated Kim and other North Korean officials as subject to sanctions for their roles in human rights abuses by the North.

Under Section 6 of Executive Order 13722, the legislation, which applied to Kim, US citizens are barred from receiving "goods" from any sanctioned person.

But as US president on official business, the rule does not apply to Trump himself: another clause says that transactions "for the conduct of the official business of the Federal Government" are not prohibited.

- Shrimp cocktail -

Sniffer dogs were brought in to sweep the kitchen ahead of the summit, and food samplers from both sides tasted each dish before it went out to the Metropole tables.

"Everything was individually wrapped, it was very hygienically packed and everything," Smart said of the North Korean supplies.

"They even brought a little alcohol swab to swab down their knives, swab down their chopping boards. In a clinical way they prepared the food very nicely."

The two chefs were talented and "very nice", the Australian added, and "very intrigued by the way that we're doing things and the style that we're cooking".

They had one culinary blind spot: they had never before seen a shrimp cocktail, the 1980s American classic which Trump requested for the opening dinner.

"They were really intrigued by the taste" of thousand island dressing, Smart said. "So I gave them the recipe and they took it home with them."

In return, they explained how to make kimchi, the fermented cabbage side dish that is a mainstay of Korean cuisine.

For lunch on the summit's second day, the North Koreans were responsible for the apple foie gras jelly appetisers -- again providing their own ingredients, and carving long-beaked birds out of a white seaweed jelly for presentation.

"It was really kind of a masterpiece," Smart said.

They were laid out on the table, but the leaders never sat down as the summit deadlocked over Washington's demand the North close its Yongbyon nuclear complex and Pyongyang's desire for relief from UN Security Council sanctions.

The leaders left without a signing ceremony or the scheduled meal, to the disappointment of the culinary team.

Instead, hotel staff ate Smart's main course of grilled snow fish, roasted vegetables and rice pilaf.

"It was delicious," said Anthony Slewka, Metropole's sales and marketing director -- and the hotel is now considering offering guests the same menu.

Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Trump warns Kim over 'rebuilding' of NKorea rocket site
Washington (AFP) March 6, 2019
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he'd be "very, very disappointed" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un if reports that work is underway to rebuild a long-range rocket site are confirmed. Speaking to reporters, Trump said "it's too early to see" if the information about work at the North Korean site is true. Warning he'd be disappointed, he added: "I don't think I will be, but we'll see what happens." Trump and Kim met last week in Vietnam to negotiate on getting rid of North Korea's nuclea ... read more