Trump, Kim make history
Smiles, handshakes, broad strokes at USN Korea summit
EASTERN PROMISES
Clasping hands and forecasting future peace, President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un committed Tuesday to “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula during the first meeting in history between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader. Yet as Trump toasted the summit’s results, he faced mounting questions about whether he got too little and gave away too much — including an agreement to halt US military exercises with treaty ally South Korea.
Meeting with staged ceremony on a Singapore island, Trump and Kim came together for a summit that seemed unthinkable months ago when the two nations traded nuclear threats. The gathering of the two unpredictable leaders marked a striking gamble by the American president to grant Kim long-sought recognition on the world stage in hopes of ending the North’s nuclear programme.
Later, Trump thanked Kim “for taking the first bold step toward a bright new future for his people.”
BEIJING: China pitched for the lifting of sanctions imposed on North Korea on Tuesday, soon after US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong un pledged to work towards denuclearising the Korean peninsula.
“The UN Security Council resolutions that have been passed say that if North Korea respects and acts in accordance with the resolutions, sanction measures can be adjusted (whether for pausing or removing them),” foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at the regular ministry briefing on Tuesday.
Although China is North Korea’s key economic benefactor, it had also imposed sanctions on the isolated country after its government tested nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
“China has consistently held that sanctions are not a goal in themselves. The security council’s actions should support and conform to the efforts of current diplomatic talks towards denuclearising the Korean peninsula, promoting a political solution,” said Geng.
The meeting between Trump and Kim was of “great significance” and had “created history”, he added.
Earlier in the day, state councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi said China was hoping that North Korea and the United States manage to reach a consensus on denuclearisation.