The Washington Post says U.S. diplomats are scrambling to set up the summit with North Korea by June 12th because of what the paper describes as President Donald Trump’s “fixation” with the initially scheduled date. 

The newspaper pointed to multiple, simultaneous contacts between negotiators from the U.S. and the North, including an expected New York meeting between U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo and Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the North Korean Workers' Party central committee.  

The paper says Trump’s latest change of direction despite warnings from his aides that he is moving too quickly and setting himself for failure is another sign that he has thrown out the conventional Washington playbook for his diplomatic high-wire act.  

Bruce Klingner, a researcher at the Heritage Foundation, is quoted as saying the presummit pace is less of a roller coaster, as some have described, and more like a more thrilling multidirectional carnival ride called “The Scrambler.” 

[Photo : YONHAP News]