U.S.-N. Korea summit may take place as October surprise

Some in the U.S. diplomacy circles are saying that the third summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may take place as an October surprise a month before the U.S. presidential election on November 3. Others are leaning toward armed provocations by the North, rather than a summit.

“We have a phrase in the United States called the 'October surprise' just before an election,” former National Security Adviser John Bolton said to a question asking the possibility of the U.S.-North Korea summit before the presidential election during a video seminar held by the Foreign Press Association in New York on Thursday (local time). "If the president felt he was in deep, deep trouble, another meeting with his friend Kim Jong Un might look like something that could turn things upside down again."

“An October surprise cannot be excluded given the characteristics of President Trump,” said senior fellow Jung H. Pak of Brookings Institution at a seminar of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Thursday. “North Korea’s closure of Yongbyon nuclear facilities and the partial removal of sanctions may be exchanged,” said CSIS Korea Chair Victor Cha.


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