Trump praises Kim but vows to keep sanctions

Japanese PM says he is open to summit with DPRK top leader

UNITED NATIONS — US President Donald Trump praised the DPRK’s top leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday for his courage in taking steps to disarm, but said much work still had to be done and sanctions must remain in place on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea until it denuclearizes.

“The missiles and rockets are no longer flying in every direction, nuclear testing has stopped, some military facilities are already being dismantled,” Trump said in his speech to the annual United Nations General Assembly.

“I would like to thank Chairman Kim for his courage and for the steps he has taken, though much work remains to be done,” Trump said. “The sanctions will stay in place until denuclearization occurs.”

Trump’s remarks on Pyongyang were dramatically different from those in his speech last year at the assembly, when he threatened to “totally destroy” the DPRK.

Trump held an unprecedented summit with Kim in Singapore in June which yielded a broad pledge by Kim to “work toward” denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

However, Pyongyang’s commitments and actions so far have fallen far short of Washington’s demands for a complete inventory of the DPRK’s weapons programs and irreversible steps to give up a nuclear arsenal. It demands that Washington agree to a declaration on the formal end of the Korean War, which was stopped in 1953 with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, before it makes significant disarmament moves.

Trump has nevertheless heaped personal praise on Kim and expressed enthusiasm for a second summit.

On Monday, he said he expected this to be announced “pretty soon” but that the location had yet to be determined.

During a meeting with President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea on Monday, Trump said Kim has been “really very open and terrific, frankly”. “I think he wants to see something happen.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he hoped to travel to Pyongyang again before the end of the year to make final preparations for a second Trump-Kim summit.

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a longtime hard-liner on Pyongyang, said on Tuesday he was willing to meet Kim.

Abe, who one year ago warned at the UN that the window for diplomacy with Pyongyang was closing, took a more open but still cautious tone in his latest address to the world body.

Speculation has been rising that Abe could meet with Kim, who reportedly told Trump during their summit in June in Singapore that he was willing to talk to Japan.

With Moon also courting Kim, fears have risen in Japan that it could be shut out of any ultimate resolution on the DPRK if it refuses dialogue.

Moon pushed back on Tuesday against skepticism about the sincerity of Pyongyang’s vows to give up nuclear bombs, saying that the current round of diplomacy with the DPRK is “completely different” than the many failed deals that have frustrated past negotiators.

“This was a promise made in front of the whole world” by Trump and Kim, Moon said. “For this reason, I believe the promise will be kept.”