SUNDAY STAR★TIMES World Trump, Kim to talk nukes again
US President Donald Trump will hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to broker a deal to coax the North to give up its nuclear weapons.
United Nations SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres said after yesterday’s announcement by the White House that it was ‘‘high time’’ for serious negotiations between the US and North Korea to outline a roadmap for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
News of a second meeting with the reclusive North Korean leader came after Trump’s 90-minute meeting in the Oval Office with a North Korean envoy, Kim Yong Chol, who travelled to Washington to discuss denuclearisation talks.
Trump and Kim Jong Un would meet near the end of February at a place to be announced later, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
‘‘The United States is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see fully and verified denuclearisation,’’ Sanders said. ‘‘We’ve had very good steps and good faith from the North Koreans in releasing the hostages and other moves. And so we’re going to continue those conversations, and the president looks forward to the next meeting.’’
In May, North Korea released three American prisoners and sent them home with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after his meeting with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang.
The second summit signals stepped-up efforts by both countries to continue talks. Trump has exchanged letters with Kim, amid little tangible progress on the vague denuclearisation agreement reached at their first meeting last June in Singapore.
Pompeo met with the North Korean envoy yesterday at a Washington hotel before the White House meeting, and they had lunch together afterwards.
Trump has spoken several times of having a second summit early this year. Vietnam has been considered as a possible summit venue, along with Thailand, Hawaii and Singapore.
Since their Singapore sitdown, several private analysts have published reports detailing continuing North Korean development of nuclear and missile technology.
A planned meeting between Pompeo and the envoy, who is North Korea’s former spy chief, in New York last November was abruptly cancelled. US officials said at the time that North Korea had called off the session.
The special US envoy for North Korea negotiations, Steve Biegun, is set to travel to Sweden for further talks over the weekend.
The talks have stalled over North Korea’s refusal to provide a detailed accounting of its nuclear and missile facilities that could be used by inspectors to verify any deal to dismantle them. It also has demanded that the US end harsh economic penalties and provide security guarantees before it takes any steps beyond its initial suspension of nuclear and missile tests.
South Korea said it expected the second summit between Trump and Kim to be ‘‘a turning point in firmly establishing a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula’’.
Kim expressed frustration in an annual New Year address over the lack of progress in negotiations. But during a visit to Beijing last week, he said North Korea would pursue a second summit ‘‘to achieve results that will be welcomed by the international community’’, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.
Kim’s latest trip to China, his fourth since last year, came as the North’s strongest ally has encouraged negotiations with the US while at the same time arguing in favour of an immediate easing of sanctions.
Independent analysts are highly sceptical that North Korea will easily abandon a nuclear arsenal constructed in the face of deep poverty and probably seen by Kim as his only guarantee of his government’s survival.
However, retired general Vincent Brooks, former US commander of American and allied forces in South Korea, said he believed Kim was serious about getting rid of his nuclear weapons.
‘‘First, we ought to take him at his word. And it’s not an easy thing to accept, especially given the track record of North Korea,’’ Brooks said. ‘‘But this is a new leader.’’