Kim lied at their first summit — so Trump wants to give him a second summit

Donald Trump is willing to invite Kim Jong Un to New York in September for a second summit, despite mounting evidence the North Korean dictator is ramping up his nuclear ambitions, according to reports.

Sources within the administration told Axios the president wants to offer Kim another personal meeting during the U.N. General Assembly as a carrot for the despot to make good on the denuclearization promises he made in Singapore last month.

The alleged invite comes after a weekend of reports that suggest Trump’s claim of ending the North Korean nuclear threat was hugely premature.

• NBC News reported Friday that North Korea was actually increasing nuclear production at a secret site nuclear site rather than winding it down.
• The Washington Post reported Saturday that U.S. officials believe Pyongyang is planning to keep at least part of its nuclear arsenal and is working on ways to “conceal” its weapons and its secret production facilities.
• The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that satellite imagery shows North Korea is close to completing a major expansion of a key missile-manufacturing plant.

The administration’s position on North Korea remains muddled. Asked in an interview on Fox Sunday about when to expect concrete details on denuclearization, Trump sounded upbeat: “This has been going on for many years. I think they're very serious about it. I think they want to do it. We have a very good chemistry.”

On the same day, national security adviser and North Korea hawk John Bolton offered a more cautious line to CBS: “We're very well aware of North Korea's patterns of behavior over decades of negotiating with the United States. There's not any starry eyed feeling among the group doing this.”

READ: Satellite images suggest North Korea is not too keen on denuclearizing after all

Ever since the Singapore summit, experts have warned that Trump gave away too much in return for very little, and the prospect of a second summit will only add to those worries.

"The recent allegations that the North Korea regime has increased its production of enriched uranium and the subsequent interview with the President by Fox show just how precarious the notion of a second Summit with Kim Jong Un is,” John Hemmings, Asia Director at the Henry Jackson Society, a British foreign policy think tank, told VICE News.

“The relationship dances on the tip of a needle, balancing the entirety of the relationship over a lack of trust,” Hemmings said. “It's not clear to me how two countries can negotiate something without trust.”

Cover images: Donald Trump gestures as he meets with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un at the start of their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)