Trump and Kim also met briefly later in 2019 in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. At that meeting, Trump actually stepped over the concrete barrier that marked the border between the two nations, making him the first president to set foot in North Korea.
Even after the Hanoi meeting fell apart, Trump was publicly optimistic about the likelihood of a third meeting and, despite the dictator’s oppressive regime, personally complimented Kim’s dismal human rights record and a threat to global security.
As recently as Monday, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview that “I have a wonderful relationship with a certain man who has great power over North Korea,” praising the “relationship I have developed” with Kim.
But even former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a staunch defender of Trump, admitted in an interview earlier this month on the conservative “Ruthless” podcast that he regretted “that we were not making more progress” with North Korea.
While Trump’s foreign policy towards the Korean Peninsula has been marked by praise for Kim, it also saw the former president renounce annual joint military exercises with South Korea and order Moon’s administration to share more of the cost for the thousands of American troops stationed there.
Moon characterized Trump’s demanded price tag as an “outrageous amount,” telling the Times, “His demand lacked a reasonable and rational calculation.”
Trump’s post-presidential office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Moon’s comments about him.
Moon also noted that while Trump favored a “top-down” style of diplomacy in the form of one-on-one summits with Kim, Biden would likely revert to the “bottom-up” method of negotiation. .
“I hope that Biden will go down as a historic president who has made substantial and irreversible progress for the full denuclearization and peace settlement in the Korean peninsula,” Moon said, encouraging the US to adopt a “mutually trusted roadmap” with North Korea to pursue. .
Biden’s meeting with Moon next month will come after the president hosted Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the White House last week. Suga was the first foreign leader Biden personally met since taking office.
The Biden administration has maintained the US’s focus on North Korea as it seeks to refocus US foreign policy from the Middle East to Asia – China and Russia in particular.