Kim’s nuke promises fall short of demands by U.S. officials
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA— Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader, told South Korea’s president Wednesday that he would commit to concrete steps toward denuclearization — including an offer to “permanently dismantle” facilities central to fuel production for nuclear warheads.
But he made no promises to relinquish his nuclear weapons or missiles.
Kim’s commitments fell far short of what American officials have demanded — a complete abandonment of the North’s nuclear and missile programs.
Nonetheless, President Donald Trump welcomed the agreements, reached during Kim’s summit meeting in North Korea with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, as “very exciting.”
Speaking on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump told reporters that when he came into office “people thought we were going — it was inevitable — we were going to war with North Korea.”
Despite Trump’s insistence that he remained tough on North Korea, three outcomes from the meeting between Moon and Kim suggested the White House had softened its position.
Moon is pushing toward a peace declaration — a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War — that the United States will almost certainly join.
Kim, only in his mid-30s but clearly a canny negotiator, has used the relationship with Moon to sidestep the American demand that he surrender all his nuclear capabilities first, and then negotiate. Instead, he is demanding reciprocal, step-bystep concessions from Trump — so far unspecified — and holding on to his nuclear weapons at least until he gets those allowances.
And finally, the Trump administration seems resigned to the idea that the “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization” that it once deemed as necessary in the next year is more likely to take at least a few years.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said as much Wednesday in a congratulatory statement to Moon and Kim.
He used it to invite the North Koreans to meet his new special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, in Vienna, “at the earliest opportunity,” to start denuclearization negotiations “to be completed by January 2021.” The agreements signed Wednesday by Moon and Kim seemed aimed more at reducing tensions along their shared border than moving quickly toward denuclearization.
Kim also promised to visit Seoul, the South Korean capital his government has often threatened to destroy in a “sea of fire.” He would be the first North Korean leader to make such a trip.