North Korea’s Kim seeks second Trump summit to spur denuclearisation

SEOUL: North Korea’s Kim Jong Un wants to hold a second summit with US-President Donald Trump soon to hasten denuclearisation, South Korean President Moon Jae-in yesterday quoted the North’s leader as saying at a summit this week.

Kim, who recently proposed the second meeting with Trump after their unprecedented June summit in Singapore, added that declaring a formal end to the 195053 Korean War would prompt rapid further steps by the North to abandon its nuclear and missile programmes, Moon said.

“Chairman Kim expressed his wish that he wanted to complete denuclearisation quickly and focus on economic development,” Moon told a news conference in Seoul, describing his three- day summit with Kim in the North’s capital of Pyongyang.

“He said he hoped ( US Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo would visit North Korea soon, and also

Chairman Kim expressed his wish that he wanted to complete denuclearisation quickly and focus on economic development. Moon Jae-in, South Korean President

a second summit with Trump would take place in the near future, in order to move the denuclearisation process along quickly,” Moon said.

Kim pledged to work toward the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula” during two meetings with Moon this year and at his summit with Trump, but talks on how to implement the vague commitments have since faltered.

Washington has demanded concrete action, such as a full disclosure of North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities, before agreeing to Pyongyang’s key goals, including an easing of international sanctions and an official end to the Korean War.

An end- of-war declaration would not affect the presence of US-troops and the United Nations Command in South Korea, Moon said, adding that Kim shared his view.

“It would be a political declaration that would mark a starting point for peace negotiations,” Moon said.

“A peace treaty would be sealed, as well as normalisation of North Korea- US relations, after the North achieves complete denuclearisation.”

Representatives for the White House and the US-State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.