Pyongyang has maintained a deafening silence as news that US President Donald Trump will meet its leader Kim Jong Un made global headlines -- and analysts say the nuclear-armed North is keeping its powder dry, retaining room to manoeuvre.

Trump last week agreed to meet with Kim by the end of May to discuss Pyongyang's denuclearisation -- which it put on the table in exchange for security guarantees -- and predicted the talks would be a "tremendous success".

But the unorthodox announcement was made on the White House lawn by a South Korean envoy, with no American officials in attendance, and only confirmed by Washington afterwards.

More than 72 hours later, there has been no comment by the North, and nothing on the subject in its official media.

"It was a unilateral statement by Trump," said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Dongguk University. "Kim Jong Un just sent him a verbal message" through Seoul's intermediaries.

"To North Korea, it's not an official agreement," he told AFP. "Nothing's for sure yet. For them, an official announcement has to be based on a government-level agreement that includes the agenda and location."

The same applied to the North's summit with the South that Seoul announced for April, he added.

In addition, Pyongyang would not want to give the South credit for brokering the talks with Washington, he said, and would hold off on any announcement until its own direct contacts with the US.

In stark contrast, the US president has been itching to share his prospective meeting.

Trump has given himself a pat on the back for bringing the isolated regime to the negotiating table, showing confidence that the North was "looking to de-nuke" and that its leaders were ready to "make peace".

But analysts warn that Pyongyang's silence gives it "maximum optionality" on its next move.

"It's not tying its own hands or making any commitments," said Van Jackson, a defence expert at the Victoria University of Wellington.

"We should be wary about believing anything we're told in private -- whether by North or South Korea."

- Options A, B, C and D -

The stunning turnaround comes after a year of high tensions over the North's nuclear and missile programmes during which Trump and Kim traded personal insults and threats of war.

The summit -- if it materialises -- will be the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader and they will have to navigate through decades of mistrust.

Possible locations mooted in the media include the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides the two Koreas, the South's Jeju Island, Switzerland -- where Kim studied as a teenager -- Sweden, and even Washington DC.

But critics warn that the talks, entered into by an impulsive, inexperienced US president, carry high risks and could create more rumbles in an already volatile region.

They are scheduled to take place without the months of groundwork that usually precedes such meetings, and reports say Trump accepted Kim's summit invitation without consulting his top national security advisers.

"Diplomacy without a plan, process, or supporting technical expertise isn't diplomacy -- it's egoism," Jackson told AFP.

"Believing in diplomacy under those conditions is believing in magic," he added.

Analysts say Trump is giving Kim what Pyongyang wants most -- joint billing with the US -- without extracting meaningful concessions in return, and should allow his diplomats to prepare the ground first.

"The administration needs to catch up fast," said Joel Wit and Susan DiMaggio, two US analysts who have been involved in informal talks with North Korea.

"Knowing how they operate, the North Koreans probably have planned their strategy meticulously and looked out over months with 'Options A, B, C and D'," they wrote in Politico magazine.

Meanwhile Trump should remain "disciplined" and "patient", they added, urging him to refrain from "hot rhetoric and taunting tweets".

Others say Pyongyang may have been caught off-guard by the speed of the US president's acceptance.

"I think North Korea did not expect an answer to come this fast," Cho Sung-ryul of the South's Institute for National Security Strategy told local radio station CBS.

The risk is that a hastily-put-together meeting could end in failure and have wider, more dangerous repercussions, experts warn.

"Diplomacy by the wrong people in the wrong way with the wrong preparation will be a poison pill," said Jackson.

And he pointed out that Trump met the hawkish former UN ambassador John Bolton for an hour the previous day.

"If high-wire diplomacy fails, then it strengthens the case for war."

Trump spy chief defends N.Korea talks, says Pyongyang bends to pressure
Washington (AFP) March 11, 2018 - Donald Trump deployed his spy chief Sunday to sell his snap decision to engage North Korea's Kim Jong Un in momentous nuclear talks that the president himself predicted would be a "tremendous success" but others warn carry big risks.

CIA director Mike Pompeo portrayed North Korea as buckling under the pressure of US-led international sanctions, and insisted there would be no let-up for the duration of the negotiations.

"Never before have we had the North Koreans in a position where their economy was at such risk, where their leadership was under such pressure," he said on Fox News Sunday.

"Make no mistake: while these negotiations are going on, there will be no concessions made," he said.

The Sunday talk show appearances by Pompeo and others served to answer critics who warn that the talks, entered into by an impulsive, inexperienced president, carry high risks.

If they fail, the two nuclear-armed states could then be left with few options short of military confrontation, experts on the years-long impasse with North Korea say.

Pompeo suggested that Trump understood the dangers. "The president isn't doing this for theater, he is going there to solve a problem."

Trump used a Saturday night campaign rally in Pennsylvania steel country to defend his decision to sit down with Kim after months of insult-filled brinkmanship, replete with nuclear threats.

He said the United States had "shown great strength" when tensions were high but the regime's leaders "want to make peace."

"I think it's time," Trump told supporters.

Before boarding his Marine One helicopter for the rally, he told reporters: "I think North Korea is going to go very well, I think we will have tremendous success ... We have a lot of support."

"The promise is they wouldn't be shooting off missiles in the meantime, and they're looking to de-nuke. So that'd be great."

- What next? -

Trump accepted the invitation Thursday after it was relayed to him in an impromptu White House meeting with the South Korean national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong.

Chung, who had met with Kim previously, told Trump that the North Korean leader had pledged to halt missile and nuclear tests during the negotiations, to discuss denuclearization and to raise no public objections to scheduled US-South Korean military exercises.

What comes next is unclear.

Deputy press secretary Raj Shah would not rule out a White House summit or Trump going to North Korea for the talks, although he said on ABC's "This Week" that the latter venue was not "highly likely."

Pompeo said "channels are open" but he shed no light on how the United States will proceed or even whether it has heard back from the North Koreans on Trump's agreement to talk to Kim.

Two key Trump advisers were out of the country, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson being in Africa and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in Oman.

Neither Tillerson, Mattis nor National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has commented substantively on the North Korea talks.

- 'Potential for misunderstanding' -

"I do not want to talk about Korea at all. I will leave it to those who are leading the effort," Mattis told reporters during a flight to Oman, "because it's that delicate, when you get into a position like this."

"The potential for misunderstanding remains very high or goes higher."

Pompeo said there wasn't "any doubt about who is going to take the lead on this."

"The president of the United States is going to take the lead," he said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Trump reached out to the leaders of China and Japan in phone calls Friday, and later said he had received encouragement for the diplomatic gambit.

He tweeted that Chinese President Xi Jinping "appreciates that the U.S. is working to solve the problem diplomatically rather than going with the ominous alternative. China continues to be helpful!"

He described Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as "very enthusiastic."

A White House readout of the conversation with Xi said the two leaders committed to keeping the pressure on North Korea until it takes "tangible steps toward complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization."

- Skepticism -

Not everyone was so sanguine about the prospects of a breakthrough, however, and some Democrats shuddered at the thought of such sensitive -- and potentially explosive -- negotiations being in Trump's hands.

"I am very worried that he's going into these negotiations and be taken advantage of," Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading liberal voice, said on CNN.

She said that while diplomacy was good, the State Department has been "decimated" with no US ambassador in South Korea or an assistant secretary for the region.

Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona was skeptical that North Korea would abandon its nuclear weapons.

"I don't think anybody really believes that North Korea is prepared to denuclearize," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Now, maybe a freeze where they say, 'All right. We are a nuclear power. Let's get some security guarantees.' But denuclearization, [as] I've heard it suggested, that that's what the North Koreans have already agreed to, I would question that."

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 here; 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 Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Rational yet unpredictable: North Korea's Kim an enigma for US
Washington (AFP) March 10, 2018
Kim Jong Un has been accused of executing generals, murdering relatives, presiding over global criminal operations and has threatened the United States with nuclear armageddon. But a string of surprising diplomatic openings - including Thursday's stunning offer to meet US President Donald Trump - has only deepened the enigma surrounding the North Korean leader. At a lengthy dinner he hosted for South Korean officials on Monday, the man once dismissed by the West as irrational and paranoid pre ... read more