Trump’s Korea dilemma

One of the top US experts on North Korea says President Donald Trump should agree to separating talks for a formal peace on the Korean peninsula from the issue of Pyongyang’s denuclearisation.

In an interview, Victor Cha said Trump should get on board with the effort by North and South Korea to craft a declaration to end the 68-year official state of war between the two countries when their leaders meet in Pyongyang next week.

“That puts Trump in a very awkward position, because there are three other parties that want a peace declaration, and he wants the credit, for the Nobel prize.” Doing so would mean Trump backing off his demand that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un first take concrete steps toward giving up his nuclear weapons.

But Trump should insist on something concrete in return, Cha said.

“They want a peace declaration and lifting sanctions first, we want steps towards denuclearisation first.”

“We have to split up the negotiations.”

Since Trump met Kim in a groundbreaking summit in Singapore in early June, Washington has rolled together the two issues of denuclearisation and an official end to the hostilities that began with the 1950-53 Korean War. Since then, there has been no sign of Pyongyang truly moving on denuclearisation, says Cha, now head of Korean issues at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“We want a declaration [of nuclear facilities], we want verification, we want a timeline. “

If North and South Korea do move toward a peace declaration, Cha said, Trump should get something in return for his endorsement.

Cha says that could be a North Korean agreement to pull its artillery back from the heavily militarised border, from where it can easily strike Seoul. – AFP