Korean nuclear hope

SOUTH Korean President Moon Jae-in has revealed that his rival, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, wasn’t asking for the withdrawal of US troops from the Korean Peninsula as a precondition for abandoning his nuclear weapons.

If true, this would seem to remove a major sticking point to a potential nuclear disarmament deal.

North Korea, a small, authoritarian nation surrounded by bigger and richer neighbours, has always linked its pursuit of nuclear weapons to what it calls a “hostile” US policy that is embodied by the 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea, the 50,000 stationed in Japan, and the “nuclear umbrella” security guarantee that Washington offers allies Seoul and Tokyo.

Although Mr Moon reported that North Korea wasn’t asking for the US troops to leave, he said the North still wanted the US to end its “hostile” policy and offer security guarantees. When North Korea has previously talked about “hostility”, it has been linked to the US troops in South Korea.

It won’t be until Mr Moon and Mr Kim meet next week, and then when Mr Kim meets US President Donald Trump sometime in May or June, that outsiders might know just what North Korea intends.

Mr Moon and Mr Kim’s summit on April 27 will be only the third such meeting between the countries’ leaders.

Mr Moon, a liberal committed to engaging the North despite being forced to take a hard line after repeated North Korean weapons tests last year, is eager to make the summit a success and pave the way for Mr Kim and Mr Trump to settle the deep differences they have over the North’s decades-long pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Many analysts believe that Mr Kim sees the meeting with Mr Trump as a way to bestow legitimacy on his own leadership and on a rogue nuclear program that he has built in the face of international criticism and crippling sanctions.

Many say it is unlikely that the North will trade away its hard-won nuclear weapons without getting what it wants in return.