Trump is open to N.K. engagement, but it ‘takes two to tango’: senior U.S. official

U.S. President Donald Trump is open to engaging with North Korea, but it “takes two to tango,” a senior administration official said Friday, in an apparent call for a recalcitrant Pyongyang to make its own efforts for dialogue.

In a telephonic press briefing, the official made the remarks, reaffirming the Trump administration’s commitment to the “complete denuclearization of North Korea” and pledging to remain in “lockstep” with South Korea and Japan over diplomacy toward the North.

The briefing came hours ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, where the two sides were set to discuss cooperation in defense, critical technologies, investment, cybersecurity and other areas.

“The Trump administration, just as in the first term, is committed to the complete denuclearization of North Korea. President Trump has voiced his openness to engaging with North Korea. That doesn’t mean we will,” the official told reporters.

“We won’t get ahead of that. Obviously, it takes two to tango in those situations, but we will remain in lockstep with our partners, both Japan and South Korea, among others, as we move forward on that,” he added.

His remarks signaled that Washington wants Pyongyang to do its part as well for the resumption of dialogue. The intransigent regime rejected the preceding Biden administration’s repeated offers to resume dialogue “without preconditions.”

The remarks helped assuage lingering concerns that South Korea could be sidelined or bypassed from Trump’s potential outreach to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, given that Seoul continues to be in a period of political uncertainty following now-impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law bid in December.

During a Fox News interview last month, Trump said he will reach out to Kim, calling the reclusive leader a “smart guy.” This has reinforced speculation that he would revive his personal diplomacy with Kim, which resulted in three summits between them during his first term, starting with the first summit in Singapore in 2018.

On trilateral cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, the official pointed out that during the first Trump administration, there were three trilateral summits on the margins of multilateral forums, as he apparently noted that Trump is also credited with fostering tripartite ties with the two Asian treaty allies.

“The Trump administration continues to support trilateral efforts and some of the working groups that have come out from under those … over the last few years,” he said. “There may be some adjustments to where the focus is on trilateral cooperation, but I think largely you will see continuity.”

The official’s comment on the trilateral partnership came amid questions over whether the Trump administration would inherit the three-way cooperation endeavors, which have deepened since former President Joe Biden hosted the landmark Camp David summit with Yoon and then Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in August 2023.

The Camp David summit, the first-ever standalone three-way summit, produced a series of agreements, including the “Commitment to Consult” each other in the event of a shared security threat.

Since the summit, the three sides have launched a system for the real-time sharing of North Korean ballistic missile warning data, created a trilateral military exercise named “Freedom Edge” and installed a trilateral secretariat to institutionalize their cooperation.