North Korea ‘no longer’ nuclear threat: Trump
Summit ends in deal, but experts question if there was any substance
WASHINGTON— U.S. President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that there is “no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea” as he returned to Washington, offering a rosy assessment of a summit with the leader of a nation that still possesses nuclear weapons.
“Just landed — a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea,” the president said on Twitter.
He later lashed out at media coverage of his meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, some of which has raised questions about how much was gained during the meeting in Singapore.
“Our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!” Trump wrote, claiming that television networks “are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea.”
Trump’s tweets followed a high-profile summit which yielded a renewed promise by Kim to “denuclearize” the Korean Peninsula but was scant on details. Lawmakers, analysts and allies have hailed the effort but questioned the substance of what was achieved.
The president’s tweets began shortly after Air Force One landed at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington and continued once he reached the White House.
In one tweet, Trump said that North Korea is no longer the United States’ most dangerous problem, as President Barack Obama had characterized it upon leaving office — and he said Americans could “sleep well tonight!” His assessment was ridiculed by Democratic lawmakers and some analysts, who suggested that North Korea remains a serious threat.
“This is truly delusional,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen wrote on Twitter. “It has same arsenal today as 48 hours ago. Does he really think his big photo-op ended the DPRK’s nuclear program? Hope does not equal reality.”
Rep. Adam B. Schiff also mocked Trump, writing: “One trip and it’s ‘mission accomplished,’ Mr. President?”
Richard N. Haas, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said “the summit changed nothing.”
“Worse yet, overselling the summit makes it harder to keep sanctions in place, further reducing pressure on NK to reduce (much less give up) its nuclear weapons and missiles,” Haas wrote on Twitter. A document signed by Trump and Kim provided virtually no detail beyond the stated commitment to “denuclearize,” a promise that Pyongyang has made and ignored many times.
At a news conference in Singapore, Trump said he “knows for a fact” that North Korea is serious about denuclearization and that Kim “wants to do the right thing.” The work of adding substance to the agreement will begin quickly, he said, and “once you start the process, it means it’s pretty much over.”