Denuclearisation on the cards?

WASHINGTON: TRUMP’S ACCEPTING AN INVITATION TO TALKS DUMBFOUNDED FOREIGN POLICY EXPERTS AND CAUGHT HIS OWN STAFF OFF GUARD. BUT MANY ARE STILL SCEPTICAL ABOUT WHETHER THEY CAN SUCCEED.

North Korean officials have told their US counterparts that Kim Jong Un is ready to discuss denuclearisation, an assurance that could pave the way for a meeting with President Donald Trump, reports said.

It is the first time the offer was made directly to Washington, after it was previously conveyed through South Korean national security adviser Chung Euiyong. “The US has confirmed that Kim Jong Un is willing to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” a Trump administration official told The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post on Sunday.

Meanwhile, China has tightened trade controls on North Korea by banning exports of electronics and other goods that can be used in making weapons.

The ban announced late Sunday is part of UN Security Council sanctions imposed to press the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to stop developing nuclear and missile technology. The latest ban covers “dual use” industrial components, metal allows and other materials that can be used in both civilian products and weapons. China accounts for nearly all of the isolated North’s trade.

Pyongyang has not followed up with Washington on the possible summit , which the Journal suggested had made US officials nervous that Seoul overstated the North’s willingness to negotiate over its own nuclear arsenal.

No specifics have yet emerged concerning the date or venue of the proposed summit.

Washington will accept nothing less than Pyongyang verifiably giving up its nuclear arsenal, fuel enrichment and ballistic missile program.

But Kim is likely to insist “denuclearisation” includes withdrawing the promise of a US “nuclear umbrella” to deter attacks on its treaty ally South Korea. And he will repeat his demand that US forces leave the peninsula, an extraordinary concession that it is hard to imagine any previous US president acceding to.

N KOREAN MINISTER ON VISIT TO RUSSIA

North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho arrived in Moscow on Monday for a visit, the TASS news agency reported.

The agency reported that the minister had arrived by plane on a flight from Ashgabat in Turkmenistan. AGENCIES