Victor Cha: "Trump's Crushing Midterm Defeat Raises Odds of Meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un"

"North Korea, the Issue Trump Has Devoted the Most Time To"
"North Korea Also Wants to Make Contact With Trump, at Least"

Yonhap News

An analysis has suggested that U.S. President Donald Trump is increasingly likely to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his upcoming trip to Asia, which begins on Nov. 15, as his defeat in the midterm elections has made him more eager to secure foreign policy achievements.

On Nov. 9 (local time), Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said during an online press briefing on CSIS's outlook for President Trump's trip to Asia, "I think the likelihood of President Trump and Chairman Kim meeting has increased since the midterm elections." He added, "President Trump is focused on building his legacy, and North Korea is the issue to which he devoted the most time during his two presidential terms." 

Cha said, "From North Korea's perspective, if it was considering a meeting, it would have waited until after the midterm elections." He explained, "They believe President Trump has become more vulnerable and an easier target after the election. They are likely eager to at least make contact with President Trump and prevent him from taking unpredictable actions like those he took in Iran or Venezuela."

Cha also predicted that expectations for significant progress at the meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, a key focus of Trump's trip, should be lower than expected. He said, "At this APEC meeting, the U.S. administration seems to be trying to lower expectations for a future meeting between President Trump and President Xi." He added, "The U.S. government has described this meeting as a brief, routine visit rather than a major summit. We expect the fragile tariff truce on critical minerals to remain in place and some progress to be made on a trade agreement."

Meanwhile, President Trump will begin his trip to Asia by attending the Quad (a security dialogue among the United States, Japan, Australia and India) summit and the ASEAN summit, which will be held in Manila, the Philippines, from Nov. 17 to 18. He is then scheduled to attend the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, from Nov. 18 to 19. 

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.