Kim and Trump can usher in an era of peace and prosperity

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump tweeted, “Meeting in Singapore with North Korea will hopefully be the start of something big ... we will soon see!” By giving a specific time — 9 am — for the planned June 12 summit between Trump and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore, the White House seems intent on following through on the historic summit.

However impulsive Trump may have been when he agreed in early March to the summit, he has now come to realize that the anticipated one-on-one with Kim is just the beginning of the “process” of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, meaning rapid denuclearization is unlikely.

Perhaps this realization is what made Trump put new sanctions against the DPRK on hold on Friday. Asked if the DPRK had agreed to “complete, verifiable and irreversible” dismantlement of its nuclear sites and program, Trump said: “We’re not going to go in and sign something on June 12, and we never were.” Thus he downplayed the expectations from the summit which he had abruptly canceled just few days ago. “We’re going to start a process … but I think they’d like to see something happen.”

Shortly after his meeting with Kim Yongchol, vice-chairman of the DPRK’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee, Trump told reporters that he was putting new sanctions against Pyongyang on hold and doesn’t want to use the term “maximum pressure” anymore.