A possible visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to North Korea in early June and the recent inter-Korean summit are among the top issues in the agenda during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's two-day visit to Pyongyang, according to the South Korean news agency, Yonhap.

Starting on Wednesday, Wang's trip to North Korea - a first for a Chinese foreign minister since 2007 - is seen as part of Beijing's continued effort to repair ties with Pyongyang after years of tension over its ballistic missiles and nuclear tests.

Images published by AFP news agency on Wednesday showed Wang as he greeted North Korean officials led by Vice Foreign Minister Ri Kil-song upon his arrival in the North Korean capital.

Lu Kang, China's foreign ministry spokesman, earlier said that Wang's visit was upon the invitation of North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho.

While in Pyongyang, Wang is "likely to be briefed" on the outcome of the breakthrough meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 27 in Panmunjom, according to Yonhap.

During that meeting, the two leaders pledged to formally end the 1950s Korean War and pursue denuclearisation in the two rival Koreas.

Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP) also reported that Wang "could make the case for a four-party talks" with the two Koreas and the United States on the future of the Korean Peninsula.

China is seen as the closest political and economic ally of North Korea. But relations between the two countries have frayed after Beijing imposed United Nations-backed sanctions against Pyongyang following its missile and nuclear tests.

'China wants in on talks'

Zhao Tong, of Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy in Beijing, was quoted by SCMP as saying that the visit of Wang to Pyongyang "might be evidence of China's strong will" to be involved in future talks on Korea.

On Tuesday, it was also reported that Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang will hold talks with South Korea's Moon and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on May 9. It is their first trilateral meeting since 2015 with North Korea expected to be on top of the discussion.

Wang's visit in Pyongyang on Wednesday and Thursday comes as Kim prepares for the meeting with US President Donald Trump possibly later this month or in early June.

A spokesman for South Korean President Moon said on Tuesday that the demilitarised zone of Panmunjom would be a "meaningful" venue for the upcoming summit between Trump and Kim.

Yonhap reported that a visit to Pyongyang by China's Xi in early June could soon follow the Trump-Kim meeting.

In March, Kim visited Beijing for the first time since coming to power in 2011. During his meeting with Xi in Beijing, he made the pledge to denuclearise if South Korea and the US respond to his efforts "with goodwill".</s>US President Donald Trump hinted today that there would be imminent news about three Americans detained in North Korea, after sources said they had been relocated ahead of their possible release. The development comes as Trump is preparing for a historic summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “The past Administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from a North Korean Labour camp, but to no avail. Stay tuned!” Trump wrote on Twitter. The United States has been demanding the North free Kim Hak-song, Kim Sang-duk and Kim Dong-chul and reports have said the two sides were close to reaching a deal on their release. “They are staying in a hotel on the outskirts of Pyongyang,” Choi Sung-ryong, a South Korean activist with contacts in the North told AFP earlier, adding the three were being kept separately but “going on tours, receiving medical treatment and eating good food.”

Diplomatic sources in Pyongyang have said there were rumours that the three had been relocated, but there had been no confirmation of their exact whereabouts. The release of the three men was discussed when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travelled to Pyongyang last month, according to the Wall Street Journal. Kim Dong-chul, a South Korea-born American pastor, has been detained in the North since 2015 when he was arrested for spying. He was sentenced to 10 years’ hard labour in 2016. Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang-duk — or Tony Kim — were both working at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, founded by evangelical Christians from overseas, when they were detained last year on suspicion of “hostile acts.”</s>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told a visiting Chinese diplomat on Thursday that he is committed to denuclearisation, China's foreign ministry said, as diplomatic efforts to bring lasting peace to the Korean peninsula gather pace.

China is North Korea's most important economic and diplomatic backer, despite its anger at North Korea's repeated nuclear and missile tests, and its support for strong U.N. sanctions against the North.

However, China has also welcomed moves by North Korea to improve ties with South Korea and the U.S.

The Chinese government's top diplomat, state councillor Wang Yi, is visiting North Korea following last week's historic meeting between South Korean president Moon Jae-in and the North's Kim Jong Un, at which both pledged to improve ties.

The North surprised the world several days before the summit by declaring it would dismantle its nuclear test site to "transparently guarantee" its dramatic commitment to stop all nuclear and missile tests.

Meeting in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, Kim told Wang that recent positive changes on the peninsula were beneficial to a peaceful resolution, China's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Kim Jong Un said achieving the denuclearisation of the peninsula is the firm position of the North Korean side," the ministry said.

Wang told Kim that North Korea had seized the day and made a decisive decision, bringing positive changes.

Last week's summit talks between the leaders of the two Koreas had brought about an opportunity for a political resolution, Wang added.

China supported an end to the state of war on the peninsula, North Korea's shift to economic development and the resolution of North Korea's legitimate security concerns during the denuclearisation process, he said.

"China is willing to maintain communication with North Korea on this and increase coordination."

The 1950-53 Korean War is technically still going on because a peace treaty has yet to be signed.

In an earlier statement, he said China hoped dialogue between North Korea and the U.S. would be successful and that substantial progress would be made, referring to an upcoming meeting between Kim and Donald Trump.

"China is willing to strengthen communication with North Korea and continue to play a positive role in seeking a political solution to the Korean peninsula issue," Wang said.

South Korea's presidential official said high-level inter-Korean talks would be held in mid-May to work on implementing the agreement reached by Kim and Moon.

China had largely sat on the sidelines while the two Koreas improved ties, until Kim made a secretive trip to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in late March.

Beijing has been keen to show that it has an indispensable role to play in seeking a lasting solution, concerned that its interests may be ignored, especially as Pyongyang and Washington edge closer together.

The widely read Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times said in an editorial any suggestion China was being marginalised "is a shallow attempt to manipulate public opinion".

China preferred quieter diplomacy, it said, pointing to the secrecy surrounding Kim's meeting with Xi.

"But Seoul, for its own political purposes, created much hype about the inter-Korean summit. U.S. president Donald Trump has started claiming credit for the Kim-Trump summit before it even starts," it said.</s>UNITED NATIONS >> Her voice cracking with emotion, the mother of college student Otto Warmbier who was sent home from North Korea in a coma and died soon after said today her family will keep speaking out about the country’s human rights violations to “rub their noses” in what they did and embarrass Kim Jong Un’s government.

UNITED NATIONS >> Her voice cracking with emotion, the mother of college student Otto Warmbier who was sent home from North Korea in a coma and died soon after said today her family will keep speaking out about the country’s human rights violations to “rub their noses” in what they did and embarrass Kim Jong Un’s government.

Cindy Warmbier told a U.N. symposium on the human rights situation in North Korea: “I can’t let Otto die in vain. … We’re not special, but we’re Americans and we know what freedom’s like, and we have to stand up for this. We have to.”

Her comments came at a sensitive time, as Kim and President Donald Trump are planning a historic meeting, and a day after the U.S. leader hinted at the imminent release of American prisoners being held in North Korea.

A week ago, Cindy and her husband Fred Warmbier filed a wrongful death lawsuit against North Korea, saying its government tortured and killed their son. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeks compensation for the death of their 22-year-old son in June 2017.

Otto Warmbier, who was a student at University of Virginia, was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor.

His plight compounded tense U.S.-North Korean relations. His parents made clear today that while they were silenced by fear of what North Korea might do to Otto after his arrest, they were not going to be quiet any longer.

“We woke up and we realized that North Korea wants us to lock ourselves in a room and do nothing, and we think that’s a bad idea,” Fred Warmbier said.

Fred said he and Cindy are now focusing on the events that occurred “while they had Otto hostage and they were using him as a pawn.”

“We are trying to build a pathway that leads directly to Kim and his regime to force them to be answerable for their actions,” he said.

Cindy Warmbier said Otto was brain dead at four months of captivity, and anyone who had a heart would have said, “Well, we screwed, let’s get him some medical care.”

But instead, she said, the North Koreans left him in a horrible place with no care to vegetate, and then acted “like we’re doing the world a favor” and released him saying he had botulism — which U.S. doctors never confirmed.

“So we can’t be quiet can we?” Cindy said. “People say why are you doing this? How can I not? How can I not? How can anybody be quiet when this is going on?”

“The only thing we can do is rub their noses in this. It embarrasses them. They don’t like the world to think that they aren’t trying to be a member of the world, and they like to act like a victim, like they’ve been treated poorly,” she said.

Ten months after burying her son, Cindy ended her comments to applause saying: “I’m sorry I’m so emotional … but it’s not really getting any easier.”

At the symposium, relatives of several Japanese men and women who were abducted by North Korea also spoke about their decades-long efforts to be reunited with their loved ones.

Takuya Yokota, whose sister was abducted in 1977, said he didn’t know “how to express gratitude” to Trump for mentioning her in his speech to the General Assembly last September. The president said North Korea “kidnapped a sweet 13-year-old Japanese girl from a beach in her own country to enslave her as a language tutor for North Korea’s spies.”

Yokota said the Japanese government must not renounce sanctions or give economic assistance to North Korea until all the abductees are returned home.

Katsunobu Kato, Japan’s minister in charge of the abduction issue, told the symposium that “maximum pressure” must be maintained against North Korea until it denuclearizes and human rights issues are resolved, including abductions.

And he said it’s important that Trump raises the abduction issue in his upcoming talks with Kim.

“We can provide for a richer life of the North Korean people,” Kato said, “but the major prerequisite is comprehensive solution of pending issues including abduction, nuclear and missile programs. And unless that is achieved the Japanese citizens will never show an understanding.”</s>North Korea has a history of detaining Americans and using them as bargaining chips against the United States.

From journalists to missionaries, most Americans detained by the North have been released after high-profile interventions.

President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday to "stay tuned" for news on the three Americans detained in North Korea, raising hopes for their release before a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks.

It is unclear how the three detainees will be released this time, but here are some past examples:

Former US president Bill Clinton made a trip to Pyongyang in 2009 to secure the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were sentenced to 12 years' hard labour for illegally crossing the border.

And in 2010, Jimmy Carter personally obtained the release of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who had been handed eight years' hard labour for illegal entry.

Clinton met with then-leader Kim Jong Il, while Carter also held talks with top officials -- and in both cases Pyongyang came away with major propaganda opportunities but little to show for the process in diplomatic terms.

The North's official KCNA news agency reported that Clinton had an "exhaustive conversation" over dinner with Kim and passed on a verbal message from then-president Barack Obama.

US officials said Clinton -- who travelled in an unmarked jet -- went to North Korea as a private citizen with the authority to negotiate only for the release of the Americans.

US citizens Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller were released after a secret mission to North Korea by James Clapper, then the Director of National Intelligence.

Clapper spent less than a day in Pyongyang, conducting talks with senior officials, but did not meet Kim Jong Un before flying out with the two freed men.

Clapper told CBS that he carried a short letter from Obama identifying him as the presidential envoy but made it clear that his mission was recovering the two US citizens.

He noted that the North Koreans were disappointed that he did not come bearing a "breakthrough" from the US government, but did not detail what offers the hosts were hoping for.

In 1996, US Congressman Bill Richardson brought home American Evan Hunziker, who had swum naked and drunk across the Yalu River from China to North Korea, where he was arrested and charged with spying.

Richardson went to North Korea as a private citizen, but was accompanied by US officials.

The North Koreans initially demanded $100,000 for Hunziker's illegal entry into the country but later agreed to free him after his $5,000 hotel bill was paid.

Less than a month after his return, however, Hunziker committed suicide.

The release of American student Otto Warmbier last year was secured after Joseph Yun, the State Department's then-special representative for North Korea policy, made a secret trip to Pyongyang.

It came after a flurry of covert diplomatic contacts between Washington and Pyongyang amid an escalating war of words between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump.

But after nearly 18 months in captivity, the 22-year-old arrived home in a state of coma and died a week later.

US officials were infuriated by Warmbier's death and Trump has accused North Korea of brutally abusing the American student.

Rather than providing a diplomatic opening, Warmbier's release prompted Washington to issue a travel ban to the isolated country and put Pyongyang back on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.</s>North Korea reportedly hands Trump another big win by releasing US prisoners

North Korea has released three US detainees in the country, according to media reports, and it meets some of President Donald Trump demands for Pyongyang to demonstrate sincerity before the historic meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un.

Kim Dong-cheol, Kim Sang-deok, and Kim Hak-seong — three US citizens detained in North Korea for years — have been released from a suspected labor camp and given health treatment and ideological education in Pyongyang, according to the Financial Times.

“We heard it through our sources in North Korea late last month. We believe that Mr Trump can take them back on the day of the US-North Korea summit or he can send an envoy to take them back to the US before the summit,” said Choi Sung-ryong, who campaigns for the release of detainees in North Korea.

The news follows Trump’s hawkish National Security Adviser, John Bolton, calling for the release of the detainees. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly spoke with Kim about the detainees during the pair’s secretive meeting in April. – READ MORE</s>Donald Trump will soon sit down to the most consequential negotiation of his career if, as expected, he becomes the first U.S. president to meet a North Korean leader since the devastating war on the peninsula in the 1950s. Trump, of course, wrote a book on dealmaking, only this time nuclear war and peace will hang in the balance, rather than a real estate contract. And on the evidence so far, his sparring partner Kim Jong Un has mastered The Art of the Deal, too. In fact, frequent North Korea visitor Dennis Rodman told TMZ he gave Kim a copy of the book for his birthday in 2017.

Trump offered 11 pieces of advice to budding negotiators in his 1987 book, and Kim seems to have put at least half of them to good use, starting with the first: Think Big. It was Kim who proposed a meeting with Trump earlier this year as he sought to de-escalate a spiral of threats and counterthreats over a series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests. What nobody knows, as new national security adviser John Bolton acknowledged on April 29 on CBS’s Face the Nation, is whether Kim really means to put North Korea’s complete, verifiable, and irreversible disarmament on the table.

The language on denuclearization that Kim has used isn’t new, and longtime observers of North Korea’s seemingly endless dance with the U.S. are skeptical. His true goals may instead be to split the U.S. from its allies in South Korea and Japan, loosen the economic sanctions that are strangling his country’s economy, and string out nuclear talks until the White House has a less explosive occupant. In some of those areas, Kim has already changed the conversation while giving away very little, beyond a moratorium on nuclear tests that may no longer be needed. “He’s done this masterfully, obviously wedging and decoupling to make daylight between these alliances,” says Jonathan Berkshire Miller, a senior visiting fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, a Tokyo-based think tank.

The summit alone is a public-relations coup for Kim. A one-on-one meeting with the U.S. president has been a long-held North Korean goal. The TV images beamed into North Korea will show the leader of a small totalitarian rogue nuclear state on an apparently equal footing with the leader of the free world. That already would be a significant diplomatic and domestic political win for Kim. On April 27 he also became the first leader of his country to step beyond the 38th parallel that divides the peninsula, where he grasped the hand of a smiling President Moon Jae-in of South Korea—and promptly guided him over to visit the northern side of the demarcation line, making clear he’d given nothing away. If only Kim had stepped over, it would have been interpreted as a sign of deference.

Next up among the pages Kim already seems to have torn from Trump’s dealmaking book: Know Your Market—in this case Trump. Kim appears to have recognized that the latest White House occupant would be more willing than any before (and most likely after) to ignore both North Korea’s appalling human-rights record and warnings from the U.S. foreign policy community about the risks of holding such a meeting. Quickly organized and without scripted outcomes, the summit is a high-stakes endeavor, especially given Pyongyang’s past history of double-dealing over nuclear commitments.

“I’ve been through three North-South summits,” says Daniel Sneider, a lecturer in East Asian studies at Stanford, recalling that Kim Dae-jung, a former South Korean president, won the Nobel Peace Prize after a similarly ballyhooed meeting with North Korea in 2000. “Does it lead to denuclearization? I don’t think so.”

Kim, with his odd haircut and theatrical warnings about the nuclear button on his desk, may not have needed Trump’s advice to get himself in the news by being “a little different, or a little outrageous.” But he certainly succeeded. Then there’s Use Your Leverage, a key element in Trump’s playbook that he described in The Art of the Deal as “having something the other guy wants.” Kim has used the U.S. desire for “complete, verifiable, and irreversible” nuclear disarmament to good effect. Last year he expanded that leverage by conducting a series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests that brought North Korea close to a capacity to deliver a nuclear holocaust to Los Angeles or New York.

Kim has time on his side. As an unelected dictator in his 30s (nobody outside Pyongyang is quite sure when in the 1980s he was born), he can afford to play a longer game than the 71-year-old Trump, who faces reelection in 2020 and whose party has to defend its majorities in Congress this year. But Trump has increased his leverage, too, pressuring Kim’s sole ally, China, to tighten restrictions on trade with the Hermit Kingdom.

By offering both the carrot of a possible opening and sticks in the form of sanctions and enough unpredictability to make both China and North Korea worry that U.S. military action might follow, Trump has already outplayed both of his White House predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, according to Ian Bremmer, president and founder of the New York-based Eurasia Group risk-consulting firm. “I think Trump deserves credit for taking what had been a difficult and deteriorating status quo and actually making peace a possibility,” says Bremmer.

Now that Kim has taken the ball and run with it, the U.S. is unlikely to be the biggest winner from the deal. While U.S. troop presence on the peninsula has not been put into question, the expanded joint military exercises of the past year may wind up curtailed—a key goal for both China and North Korea. South Korea, meanwhile, would enjoy the prospect of increased economic flows over the border, a lower security threat, better relations with China, and even the potential for a later reunification that could turn Korea into a nation the size of Germany. Japan, an historic rival, would have the least to celebrate at that prospect.

The chances of Kim actually giving up his nuclear deterrent would appear to be slim, given the example of Libya’s autocrat Moammar Qaddafi, who was overthrown with the help of Western air power and brutally murdered in 2011 after giving up his nuclear program. That makes an end to North Korea’s intercontinental missile development the best Trump can hope for.

It may also be difficult for Trump to keep pressure on Kim while he negotiates, as he has pledged to do. In April, just months after North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test, China’s state-backed English-language daily, the Global Times, argued in an editorial that it was time to reward Pyongyang’s change of tone by ending U.S. military drills and international sanctions.

This is where Kim has the most to gain. Sanctions have exacted a severe toll on North Korea. While no reliable official data exist for the economy—outside estimates have to be made by extrapolating from consumption of cooking oil, among other creative methods—this is undoubtedly a poor country. According to South Korea’s central bank, North Korea’s nominal gross domestic product was about $30 billion ($1,300 per capita) in 2016, compared with $1.4 trillion (more than $27,000 per capita) in the South. United Nations sanctions have played a role, driving exports down to $1.9 billion last year from as much as $3.5 billion in 2012, according to the International Monetary Fund. That’s left North Korea reliant on China for 86 percent of its exports, more than twice the share from a decade ago. The resulting squeeze on foreign currency reserves may have drawn Kim to the negotiating table, according to analysis by Bloomberg Economics.

One rule in Trump’s book that neither man seems to be following is to maximize alternatives in case things go wrong during negotiations. An acrimonious collapse of talks, between men who not long ago were deriding each other as the “Little Rocket Man” and “mentally deranged,” could leave the peninsula as close to war as if there had been no talk of a summit at all. —With Kanga Kong and Isabel Reynolds</s>BEIJING (Reuters) - China is willing to continue playing a positive role to seek a political resolution for the Korean peninsula, the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, told North Korea’s foreign minister as diplomatic efforts gather pace.

China is North Korea’s most important economic and diplomatic backer, despite Beijing’s anger at Pyongyang’s repeated nuclear and missile tests and support for strong United Nations sanctions against the North.

However, China has also welcomed moves by North Korea to improve ties with South Korea and the United States.

Wang is visiting Pyongyang following last week’s historic meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the North’s Kim Jong Un, where both pledged to improve ties.

The North surprised the world several days before that summit by declaring it would dismantle its nuclear test site to “transparently guarantee” its dramatic commitment to stop all nuclear and missile tests.

In a statement late on Wednesday, China’s Foreign Ministry cited Wang as offering North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho his congratulations for the successful meeting between the leaders of the North and South.

China fully supports North Korea’s commitment to denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula as well as its decision to concentrate its efforts on economic development, Wang said during his trip to Pyongyang.

“We hope the dialogue between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States will be conducted successfully and that substantial progress will be made,” he said, referring to an upcoming meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump.

China also fully supports a resolution of North Korea’s “reasonable and legitimate security concerns” and gives its full support for the improvement of inter-Korean relations, Wang said.

“China is willing to strengthen communication with North Korea and continue to play a positive role in seeking a political solution to the Korean peninsula issue,” he said.

China had largely sat on the sidelines while the two Koreas improved ties, until Kim made a secretive trip to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in late March.

Beijing has been keen to show that it has an indispensable role to play in seeking a lasting solution, concerned that its interests may be ignored, especially as Pyongyang and Washington edge closer together.

The widely read Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times said in an editorial on Thursday the theory China was being marginalised “is a shallow attempt to manipulate public opinion”.

China prefers quieter diplomacy, it said, pointing to the secrecy surrounding Kim’s meeting with Xi.

“But Seoul, for its own political purposes, created much hype about the inter-Korean summit. U.S. President Donald Trump has started claiming credit for the Kim-Trump summit before it even starts,” it said.</s>Former NBA star Dennis Rodman said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un didn’t really “understand” President Donald Trump until he gave him a copy of the president’s book, “The Art of the Deal,” for his birthday in 2017.

In a recent interview with TMZ, Rodman said, “I think [Kim] didn’t realise who Donald Trump was at that time, I guess, until he started to read the book and started to get to understand him.”

‘Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are pretty much the same,’ claims Dennis Rodman during visit to Beijing

Rodman, who considers Kim a friend and has made a number of visits to North Korea, said he believes the North Korean leader has had “a change of heart” when it comes to both Trump and the American people. The former NBA player didn’t take full credit for this, but still feels his efforts at basketball diplomacy with North Korea played a significant role in the recent warming of relations.

“I don’t want to take all the credit. I don’t want to sit there and say, ‘I did this, I did that.’ That’s not my intention,” Rodman said. “My intention was to go over and be a sports ambassador to North Korea so people understand how the people are in North Korea. I think that has resonated to this whole point now.”

Dennis Rodman returns to Pyongyang to see his ‘friend’ Kim Jong-un

Trump is set to meet with Kim at some point in the near future to discuss North Korea’s nuclear programme, though a location and date have not yet been announced. Rodman is seemingly very pleased with this development.

“I’m not the president. I’m just one person. I’m just one person and I’m so happy that things are going well,” Rodman said.

In 2017 North Korea conducted a series of long-range missile tests as part of its broader ambition to develop a nuclear weapon capable of reaching the mainland US. This led to a war of words between Trump and Kim as well as harsh economic sanctions to be levelled against Pyongyang by the international community.

But the tide has turned in 2018 as North and South Korea have rekindled relations. Kim recently travelled to South Korea for a historic summit with President Moon Jae-in, in which the two leaders vowed to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and work toward formally ending the Korean War.

Moon, as well as a number of Republican lawmakers back in the US, have given Trump a great deal of credit for these developments and have suggested the president should win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in pressuring North Korea.

See Also:

Rodman gives Trump’s ‘The Art of the Deal’ as gift for North Korea’s Kim: AP

Dennis Rodman hopes Trump gives Kim a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat

Rodman gives North Korea a copy of Trump’s ‘The Art of the Deal’</s>We've reached the point in this story where the lawyer defending the President in a possible obstruction or conspiracy case about possible election meddling and collusion with agents in one country is making bombshell foreign policy pronouncements about another country.

In fact, Rudy Giuliani, who once coveted a high-level role in the administration and is now part of President Donald Trump's legal effort, was arguing that Trump's work on foreign policy is being distracted by special counsel Robert Mueller's Russian election meddling investigation.

Giuliani's argument, essentially, is that Trump is too busy for a "silly" deposition by Mueller.

"The President of the United States," said Giuliani, "is getting ready to negotiate one of our historic agreements since opening of China, and we got Kim Jong Un impressed enough to be releasing three prisoners today, and I have got to go there and [Trump lawyer] Jay Sekulow and ... we have to go there and prepare him for this silly deposition about a case in which he supposedly colluded with the Russians, and there is no evidence of that. Everybody forgets the basis of the case is dead. Sessions should step in and close it. And say enough's enough."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop the Russia investigation because North Korea. Except that's not really the way things work. There's no doubt that North Korea is at the negotiating table in a way it has not been in recent years. And Trump deserves some credit for that? Absolutely. But the strange development in Giuliani's appearance is that the lawyer advising the President in a probe that has led to guilty pleas and indictments is arguing the President shouldn't answer "silly" questions because it hurts his ability to impress Kim Jong Un. The underlying argument here is the notion from Giuliani that the Russia investigation is getting in the way of Trump's day job, which is being President. Trump did much the same when he tweeted Wednesday about all the other things going on in his world besides the Russia investigation. "There was no Collusion (it is a Hoax) and there is no Obstruction of Justice (that is a setup & trap)," Trump tweeted Wednesday. "What there is is Negotiations going on with North Korea over Nuclear War, Negotiations going on with China over Trade Deficits, Negotiations on NAFTA, and much more. Witch Hunt!" The irony is that in the same interview in which Giuliani said a deposition would be silly, he confirmed, essentially, that both Trump and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders had said things that weren't true about the hush money Michael Cohen paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump a decade ago. They both said Trump didn't know about the payment by Cohen. Turns out, Trump reimbursed Cohen for it. The President's aides say Daniels' claims are false despite the payment. Obviously, the Cohen matter is distinct from the Russia investigation. But it's emblematic of the larger problems with truth that this White House encounters on a daily basis. The other issue is that Giuliani is, essentially, clouding the North Korea developments with the Russia investigation. If a new detente with North Korea comes to be, the President will not likely want it associated with possible election meddling. But the strangest and most alarming thing is that the President's adviser in a legal matter seems to have inside knowledge about high-level talks with North Korea. The release of those three prisoners had not been formally announced when Giuliani made his comment. It still hasn't. CNN has been reporting on the issue, and while there are murmurs about their release, it's not at all clear it has happened "As everybody is aware, the past Administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from a North Korean Labor camp, but to no avail. Stay tuned!," Trump tweeted Wednesday night. That's not the same as saying they would be released today, as Giuliani did. If the prisoners are released and it presages the promised meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un, that will be a positive development. That the first affirmative word of their release came from the President's Russia lawyer and not someone working on North Korea or even national security matters with him will remain very weird. And it should probably have nothing to do with the Russia investigation.
North Korea has released the three remaining American detainees ahead of the upcoming summit meeting with Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un. The news came after National Security Adviser John R. Bolton stated that they should be released as a way for North Korea to demonstrate its sincerity in talks.