Agreement is short on specifics and timelines
Kim made no specific commitment to relinquish his nuclear arms and ballistic missiles or a timeline in which he would do so. Rather, he committed solely to abiding by a mostly symbolic agreement he had made during a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April.
Other highly sensitive matters, including the North’s brutal human-rights abuses and the economic sanctions imposed by the United States, were left unaddressed. Trump said he would keep the sanctions in place until the North demonstrated tangible steps toward disarmament.
Asked why his negotiating team had failed to lock down specific promises from Pyongyang, Trump protested: “Because there’s no time. I’m here one day … But the process is now going to take place.”
Trump said aides would begin additional talks soon and said he would potentially invite Kim to the White House and be open to a visit to Pyongyang “at the appropriate time.” Yet he also acknowledged that disarmament would not come quickly.
“It does take a long time to pull off complete denuclearization. It takes a long time,” Trump said. “Scientifically, you have to wait certain periods of time, and a lot of things happen. But despite that, once you start the process, it means it’s pretty much over. Can’t use them, that’s the good news. That’s going to start very soon.”
The result was a nascent diplomatic breakthrough after decades of hostility, but no guar- antee that North Korea would follow through. Trump grounded his optimism in his own confidence that he can read an adversary and that his gamble of attempting personal rapport with an autocrat would pay off. Trump said Kim agreed to shutter a missile engine testing site and to allow the return of remains of American service members lost in North Korea during the Korean War more than 60 years ago.
Kim, in turn, got at least one major benefit upfront. Trump announced that he will order an end to regular “war games” that the United States conducts with ally South Korea, a reference to annual joint military exercises that are an irritant to North Korea.
Trump called the exercises “very provocative” and “inappropriate” in light of the optimistic opening he sees with North Korea. Ending the exercises would also save money, Trump said.
The United States has conducted such exercises for decades as a symbol of unity with Seoul and previously rejected North Korean complaints as illegitimate. Ending them would be a significant political benefit for Kim — and for China, which has long supported such an outcome — but Trump insisted he did not give up leverage.
“I think the meeting was every bit as good for the United States as it was for North Korea,” Trump said. Though Trump had spent Monday calling Moon and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to consolidate support, Moon’s government seemed blindsided by Trump’s unilateral decision to end the joint mil- itary exercises. A spokesman for Moon said the government needed more information “to understand” Trump’s intentions.
At the U.S. military command in South Korea, officials also reacted with uncertainty. Col. Jennifer Lovett, a spokeswoman, said the command “has received no updated guidance on execution or cessation of training exercises.”
Those exercises include the Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills scheduled for August.
“We will continue with our current military posture” until further notice, she said.
The outcome came after an extraordinary two days in which Trump and Kim arrived on this Southeast Asian citystate in a strikingly lopsided power dynamic — Trump, 71, the leader of the world’s richest and most powerful nation and Kim, 34, the ruler of the most isolated and repressive.
Yet it was Kim who stole the show in the hours before the summit, taking a surprise nighttime tour of Singapore’s gleaming waterfront, a glass and steel testament to wealth and prosperity that offered a glimpse of what is possible if he chooses to open to the world.
Cheered on by crowds of onlookers, Kim toured the Marina Bay Sands, a three-tower complex with the replica of a cruise ship spanning across the 57th floors, strolled along the architecturally stunning Jubilee Bridge and took a selfie with Singapore’s foreign minister.
By the time he arrived at the Capella the following morning, Kim had begun to transform his image and pictures of his tour were plastered on the news pages of his state-run media back home in North Korea. As Trump and Kim approached one another from opposite wings of a makeshift stage, complete with a red car- pet and a row of alternating American and North Korean flags, Kim had established himself as an equal, for one day at least, to the most powerful leader on Earth.