'Trump will focus on North Korea to build foreign policy legacy'

Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. [Yonhap]
Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. [Yonhap]

The chances of Donald Trump meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during the US president's mid-November trip to Asia — including stops in the Philippines and China — have grown, a leading American expert on the Korean Peninsula said.

Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said at an online media briefing Monday (local time) on Trump's upcoming Asia tour that the likelihood of a Trump-Kim meeting has "increased after the midterm elections."

Cha said that after the midterms, "the president will focus on many things, but one of them is building his legacy" — and not just through renaming buildings, golf courses or airports in Washington, but in the realm of diplomacy as well.

"North Korea is clearly an area where President Trump has personally invested a great deal of time across two terms," Cha said, adding that no one in the US government shapes North Korea policy except the president himself. "So I think President Trump will focus on that legacy question."

Cha said that from Pyongyang's perspective, if North Korea had been considering a meeting with the United States, "their plan was always to wait until after the midterms." He added that North Korea likely views Trump as "perhaps more weakened, more vulnerable and an easier target."

"I am convinced that there is at least a sustained desire on their part to re-engage with President Trump and to make sure he does not act unpredictably, as he did with Iran or Venezuela," Cha said.

Trump is scheduled to attend the Quad summit and the ASEAN summit in Manila, the Philippines, Nov. 17-18, followed by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, Nov. 18-19. Observers say he could use the Asia trip as an opportunity to meet with Kim.


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