Trump 'unlikely' to meet DPRK leader

Beijing says dialogue is 'the only right choice' on the nuclear issue

The White House said on Monday that US President Donald Trump's is unlikely to meet with Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, in the near future despite Trump's openness to that possibility.

"We are so early into this process that I don't see this happening any time soon," said spokesman Sean Spicer, adding that conditions for such a meeting have not been met yet.

Earlier on Monday, Trump told Bloomberg that he would meet Kim Jong-un "under the right circumstances".

"If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honored to do it," Trump said. "If it's under the, again, under the right circumstances. But I would do that."

Meanwhile, two US strategic bombers conducted drills with fighter jets of the Republic of Korea amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Yonhap news agency reported.

An unnamed ROK military source was quoted as saying that two B-1 Lancer supersonic bombers carried out air force trainings over the peninsula for two to three hours on Monday. The US bombers reportedly departed from the US Anderson air base in Guam and arrived at ROK's east waters at about noon on Monday.

The supersonic bombers conducted joint exercises with several ROK F-15K fighter jets, before staging a separate drill with fighter jets from the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, which was recently sent to the region.

The sortie came amid the rising tensions on the peninsula.

USS Carl Vinson has been sailing in waters off the peninsula after the US-ROK joint annual war games which ended at the end of April.

Pyongyang has denounced the war games as a rehearsal for invasion. It said on Monday that the current crisis is the most dangerous in half a century since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

China has said that efforts on nonproliferation and promotion of peace talks have to be strengthened so as to bring the nuclear issue to a peaceful settlement.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday urged the US and the DPRK to make constructive efforts. "As the direct parties of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the US and the DPRK should make political decisions as soon as possible, take actions, show their sincerity, and make constructive efforts for easing tensions of the peninsula, restoring peaceful talks process and finally achieving the denuclearization of the peninsula," Geng Shuang said.

The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue should be resolved in peaceful means through dialogue, which is "the only practical and feasible way" to realize the denuclearization of the peninsula, he said.

"And it's the only right choice," he added.

An Baijie in Beijing and Xinhua contributed to this story.

zhaohuanxin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/03/2017 page12)