Trump-Kim meeting: A mystery that will forever remain a mystery

US-North Korea leaders attend summit in Hanoi. Photo: CNN

Only four people know exactly what Trump and Kim said to each other.

Trump and Kim’s interpreters were the two “lucky” individuals privy to the conversation without a note-taker, a fact that raises concerns about why Trump risked meeting Kim, who has threatened to attack the US with nuclear bombs and has a dismal human rights record.

After a meeting without specific records and relevant witnesses, the leaders can “distort” what was said, and this can easily lead to conflicts or even war of words. It is likely that President Trump and the North Korean leader will have more such private meetings on February 28, as the two sides seek to go into details of nuclear negotiations.

In fact, President Trump has had private meetings with world leaders before such activities were deemed prudent.

In the early days of his presidency, Trump met with President Vladimir Putin with only a Kremlin interpreter present. Last year, after Trump spent more than two hours talking with Mr. Putin in Helsinki, Finland, Democrats sought to subpoena President Trump’s interpreter to testify before Congress about what was said.

However, Republicans blocked the Democrats' efforts, while the White House never provided information about what Putin and Trump talked about. Even US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats admitted he had no knowledge of the content of the meeting.

President Trump's interpreter for the private meeting with Kim Jong-un on February 27 was Yun-hyang Lee, head of the US State Department's interpretation division, who also interpreted for the President at his first meeting with Kim Jong-un in Singapore last year. The White House said Kim Jong-un's interpreter was Sin Hye Yong.

Some experts on previous diplomatic efforts between the United States and North Korea worry that this kind of private meeting is an opportunity for Kim to extract concessions from the American leader that working-level advisers have advised Trump to avoid making.

Metropole Hotel, where the second US-North Korea summit took place. Photo: Getty

Ahead of the summit, Democratic Senator Ed Markey said he thought Kim would ask for a private meeting in the hopes of “extracting concessions from President Trump that would not be possible if they were made in a meeting of officials.”

Meanwhile, there are opinions that the president's desire to hold private meetings with world leaders is not a cause for concern.

“I don’t see anything wrong with that… I think he’s just more comfortable with these kinds of meetings,” retired Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, now at the think tank Defense Priorities, told reporters at a briefing on the US-North Korea summit, noting that former US President Richard Nixon also had many private meetings with Chinese leaders when he re-established relations with the country in the 1970s.

It is difficult to believe that Trump can be controlled by Kim.

At the Singapore summit last year, Trump surprised ally South Korea by announcing the suspension of major joint military exercises. Critics said he was sapping crucial US influence before North Korea had made substantial progress on denuclearization. Many believed Trump made the decision in private talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as his description of the exercises as “provocative” resonated with North Korea, which sees them as rehearsals for invasion.

Analyst Bong Young-shik, who works at Yonsei University, is not too worried and believes that the criticism Trump faced in Singapore may limit him from making important and hasty decisions in this private meeting with Kim. Mr. Bong said: "These kinds of meetings always come with risks, but it is difficult to say that Trump can be controlled by Kim based on what happened in Singapore."

Former US President Barack Obama often limited impromptu meetings with foreign leaders on the sidelines of international summits to only an interpreter.

In November 1985, former President Ronald Reagan met privately with then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva, Switzerland, accompanied only by trusted interpreters. The meeting was scheduled to last 15 minutes, but lasted an hour.