Trump: No rush on denuclearization
US President Donald Trump is downplaying expectations for his second summit next week with DPRK’s top leader Kim Jong-un, as he said on Tuesday that he is “in no rush” to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
Trump told reporters that he was looking forward to meeting Kim in Hanoi, Vietnam. He said he would like to see the ultimate denuclearization of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, but also noted that he was “in no particular rush” given that the sanctions remain in effect and Pyongyang has refrained from nuclear and missile testing.
Trump added that he had talked with Moon Jae-in, president of the Republic of Korea, about the upcoming summit.
According to the ROK presidential office, Trump and Moon intensively discussed ways to cooperate for the upcoming second summit for about 35 minutes.
The ROK leader also said his country was ready to assume any role and, if Trump demands, to offer corresponding measures to facilitate denuclearization on the peninsula, according to Yonhap News Agency.
The first Trump-Kim summit in Singapore in June led to a joint declaration from the leaders to “work toward” complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
However, differences on key issues, such as the road map for denuclearization, US lifting of sanctions and whether to issue a war-ending declaration, still haunt the two sides and hinder further progress.
Trump’s repeated emphasis on “no rush” and “no testing” has led some observers to worry that the US president doesn’t care much about denuclearization as long as the DPRK refrains from testing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that threaten the US, Yonhap said.
Zha Daojiong, a professor in international political economy of the School of International Studies at Peking University, said Trump’s remarks show that he may not want Pyongyang to be completely denuclearized.
“For the United States, a rapid denuclearization of the DPRK will means that its military activities in Northeast Asia will lose the legitimacy. If the DPRK fully denuclearized, then the US should accordingly withdraw or reduce its army forces in the ROK and Japan. But clearly, the US does not want that,” Zha said.
Robert Abrams, commander of US Forces in Seoul, said earlier this month that although there was a “significant reduction in tension” over missile and nuclear tests by the DPRK, US annual military exercises with the ROK hadn’t changed in size, scope or timing.
Zha said Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons not only give Washington a reason to increase its influence in Northeast Asia, but could also be used by the US as a bargain chip to balance regional power.
Despite the skepticism, the US president has remained hopeful for progress in denuclearization and was in consideration of giving the DPRK some economic reward.
“I really believe that North Korea (the DPRK) can be a tremendous economic power when this is solved,” Trump said.
Washington is reportedly considering various options, including the exchange of liaison officers, a partial exemption of economic sanctions, and a peace declaration to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War.