FOREIGN POLICY/NATIONAL SECURITY/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/SOUTH KOREA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “In the midst of a joke-filled monologue at a dinner with journalists, President Donald Trump suggested on Saturday [3-3-18] that the United States will be meeting with North Korea but has told Pyongyang it must first ‘denuke.’ ‘Now we are talking and they, by the way, called up a couple of days ago. They said that ‘we would like to talk.’ And I said ‘So would we, but you have to denuke, you have to denuke,’ Trump told attendees at the annual Gridiron Club dinner. … If a meeting were to come together, it would be the first between the Trump administration and Pyongyang, which are in a standoff over North’s development of nuclear weapons capable of hitting the United States. … Trump’s remarks on North Korea came toward the end of a 30-minute speech in his first press dinner since taking office 13 months ago. Gridiron Club members don wigs and costumes to perform satirical skits skewering the president and Washington political class, a tradition dating back to 1885. … Trump’s remarks came shortly before South Korea’s presidency announced on Sunday that a high-level delegation of South Korean officials will travel to North Korea on Monday to discuss improving relations on the peninsula and possible talks between Washington and Pyongyang.”
-Makini Brice, “At joke-filled dinner, Trump suggests U.S. will meet with North Korea,” Reuters.com, Mar. 3, 2018 9:48pm