Trump claims end of nuclear threat
America and the world can ‘‘sleep well tonight’’, US President Donald Trump declared yesterday, boasting that his summit with Kim Jong Un had ended any nuclear threat from North Korea though the meeting produced no details on how or when weapons might be eliminated or even reduced.
While Trump claimed a historic breakthrough at the most significant diplomatic event of his presidency, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, was more measured. He said the US wants North Korea to take ‘‘major’’ nuclear disarmament steps within the next two years – before the end of Trump’s first term in 2021.
Pompeo also cautioned that the US would resume ‘‘war games’’ with close ally South Korea if the North stops negotiating in good faith.
The president had announced a halt in the drills after his meeting with Kim on Tuesday, a concession long sought by Pyongyang.
The summit in Singapore did mark a reduction in tensions – a sea change from last fall, when North Korea was conducting nuclear and missile tests and Trump and Kim were trading threats and insults. Kim is now promising to work toward a denuclearised Korean Peninsula.
But the details of what is sure to be a complex and contentious process have yet to be settled.
Despite the uncertainties, Trump talked up the outcome of what was the first meeting between a US and North Korean leader in six decades of hostility.
‘‘Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office,’’ Trump tweeted yesterday. ‘‘There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!’’
Pompeo, who flew to Seoul after the summit, said the brief, four-point joint statement that emerged from the summit did not encapsulate all the progress the US and North Korea had made. He said negotiations would recommence ‘‘in the next week or so.’’
He bristled at questions from reporters about the vague wording of the statement where North Korea ‘‘commits to work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula’’ – a promise it has made several times before in the past 25 years and reneged on.
Pompeo said Kim understands that ‘‘there will be in-depth verification’’ in any deal with the US.
‘‘We have big teams ready to go,’’ including experts from the US and other partners around the world. We’re prepared to execute this once we’re in a position that we can actually get to a place where we can do it,’’ Pompeo said.
Yesterday, the rival Koreas held rare high-level military talks to discuss reducing tensions across their heavily fortified border. It’s possible North Korean officials will seek a firm commitment from the South on stopping its military drills with the United States.
Seoul’s Defence Ministry said the talks would focus on carrying out agreements from a summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in when they vowed to take steps to reduce military tensions and eliminate the danger of war. –AP