NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/SUMMIT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late February, the White House said Friday [1-18-19], the latest effort to jump-start stalled nuclear negotiations with the Asian country. The announcement, which did not give a location for the summit, comes as Trump faces domestic political blow-back over the ongoing government shutdown. A second summit could offer him a foreign policy goal to point to as a way of rallying supporters. But while tensions between Pyongyang and Washington have eased in recent months, there’s no guarantee that another get-together between Kim and Trump will lead North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program as the U.S. wants. The two leaders’ first confab in Singapore last June — the first time two sitting leaders from the U.S. and North Korea had met — has not led to Pyongyang reducing its nuclear missile program. In fact, analysts say the country has only continued to secretly expand some missile bases. The brief announcement of a second summit came shortly after Trump met with Kim Yong-chol, a top North Korean official, in the Oval Office.”
–Nahal Toosi, “Trump to meet with Kim Jong Un for second time next month,” Politico, January 18, 2019 3:39 pm