Trump, Kim ‘stop the war games’
DOCUMENT SIGNED TO BREAK COLD WAR
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un hailed their historic summit yesterday as a breakthrough in relations between Cold War foes, but the agreement they produced was short on details about the key issue of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons.
The extraordinary encounter saw the leader of the world’s most powerful democracy shake hands with the third-generation scion of a dynastic dictatorship, standing as equals in front of their nations’ flags.
Kim agreed to the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”, a stock phrase favoured by Pyongyang that fell short of long-standing US demands for North Korea to give up its atomic arsenal.
And Trump said the US would halt military exercises with Seoul – a long-term irritant for Pyongyang, which claims they are a rehearsal for invasion.
The exercises were not mentioned in the document that the two men signed.
“We will be stopping the war games which will save us a tremendous amount of money,” Trump told reporters, adding that “at some point” he wanted to withdraw US troops from the South.
“Under the circumstances where we’re negotiating a very comprehensive agreement, I think it’s inappropriate to be having war games.”
After a day filled with smiles and compliments, the US “committed to provide security guarantees” to North Korea.
Asked about denuclearisation – the crux of the summit – Trump said, “we’re starting that process”, adding that it would begin “very, very quickly”.
He said there would be a process of verification involving “a lot of people”, but gave no concrete details.
He also insisted that US sanctions would remain in place until Washington had seen progress.
The text of the two men’s agreement
US President Donald Trump flew out of Singapore yesterday after a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Shortly before Air Force One took off for Guam where, en route for Hawaii and Washington, he was expected to greet US troops, Trump said “there was nothing more we could have done” in the talks with Kim. – AFP made no mention of previous US demands for “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation” – jargon for scrapping weapons and committing to inspections. – AFP