Trump hails ‘historic’ deal with Kim
DONALD Trump has hailed his talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as “honest, direct and productive” as the two leaders signed a historic joint agreement.
At their summit in Singapore, the US President declared: “We are prepared to start a new history,” while the North Korean leader said the “world will see a major change”. Crucially, Mr Trump said Mr Kim had agreed during a one-on-one 40-minute meeting to “verified” de-nuclearisation – Washington’s key pre-summit demand.
Their agreement also included a promise from the Communist leader to rid the Korean peninsula of all nuclear weapons.
The two countries would co-operate towards “new relations” while the US would provide “security guarantees” to North Korea. The agreement also committed the two leaders to building a “lasting and robust peace regime” on the Korean peninsula.
At a post-talks press conference in Singapore, an upbeat Mr Trump announced he would halt planned “war games,” saying they would be provocative and inappropriate.
NEARLY five hours of unprecedented talks between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, culminated in the signing of a historic document at yesterday’s nuclear summit in Singapore.
While for his part Mr Trump committed to providing “security guarantees”, Mr
Kim “reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”.
Amidst the backslapping, bonhomie and fulsome declarations of a new friendship there were lofty declarations too with Mr Trump promising to handle a “very dangerous problem” and Mr Kim forecasting “major change for the world”.
On the face of it this all sounds very good and in itself is indeed to be welcomed.
It would be churlish to suggest that in the first handshake between these two men there is not some cause for hope and progress, in what up until now has been a dangerously volatile face off between President Trump and Chairman Kim.
But drill down into the joint agreement and statements by the two leaders and what becomes clear is that this historic deal remains light on specifics. It’s not so much that the devil lies in the detail, but more that there is very little detail to begin with on how the agreement between them will actually be implemented.
In short, it’s a deal heavy on pledges and vague – to say the least – on practicalities.
To begin with, the document signed by both leaders made no mention of the sanctions currently imposed on Mr Kim’s regime. There was no reference either in the agreement to take steps in moving toward finally signing a peace treaty between the two countries.
North Korea and the United States were on opposite sides in the 1950-53 Korean War and are technically still combatants, given that the conflict was concluded only with a truce.
Did Mr Trump not boast before heading to Singapore of being able to achieve such a peace treaty?
On a more positive note on this issue at least, the joint statement did confirm the two sides had agreed to recover the remains of prisoners of war and those missing in action so that they could be repatriated.
Ultimately, though, it remains the issue of denuclearisation on which the success or failure of the summit will be judged.
Beyond open-ended pledges from Mr Kim, what Mr Trump came away with was a far cry from the previous US aim of “complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement” (CVID) of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. This after all was Washington’s original demand, required to uphold the validity of the Nuclear-non Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
In fact Mr Kim’s commitments on this in Singapore appear not to have gone beyond what he already pledged to do in April when he met South Korean President Moon Jae-in along their respective countries’ border.
That said few analysts expected
Mr Kim to commit to CVID following this first negotiation. Whether nuclear disarmament is indeed the outcome of yesterday’s summit won’t be known for years, if not decades.
Ultimately the test is now on the Trump administration to see if they have the political will to sustain this process and move the negotiation past broad
commitments to durable and sustainable solutions.
A spokesman for South Korean President Moon Jae-in aptly summed this up yesterday when he was quoted as saying that the “exact meaning and intention” of what Mr Trump had said “needs to be assessed”.
It has always been thus with the Trump presidency’s promises and pledges on major foreign policy issues.
Certainly the man who regards himself as the “master deal maker” and relies on “my touch, my feel” when it comes to crucial negotiations, appears in the wake of the summit to have made some pretty major concessions.
Chief among these is halting what he called “provocative” war games that are the extensive US military exercises in South Korea, widely seen by analysts as a substantial concession to Pyongyang.
But for Washington any deal brokered China
Beijing suggested the UN Security Council could consider suspending or lifting sanctions against North Korea if Pyongyang is in compliance with UN resolutions and making progress in diplomatic negotiations.
Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China “welcomes and supports” talks between North Korea and the US to reach consensus on denuclearisation and establish a peace mechanism.
United Nations
Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said his agency “stands ready to undertake any verification activities that it may be requested to conduct by the countries concerned”.
Iran
The Iranian government warned Mr Kim that the US president could nullify any nuclear deal.
The semi-official Fars news agency quoted a government spokesman as saying: “We are facing a man who revokes his signature while abroad.”
Japan
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed Mr Kim’s written commitment to complete denuclearisation.
Malaysia
New Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said: “Both sides must be prepared to give in certain issues if they expect to reach a good conclusion.”
India
The foreign ministry said it hoped for complete implementation of the agreement, “thus paving the way for lasting peace and stability in the Korean peninsula”.
Russia
“Trump’s words that the process of denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula will start ‘very, very soon’ is more of a wish than a fact,” Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the upper house of Russia’s parliament, wrote on his Facebook page.
“The role of the international community is important here. We must take the two leaders at their word and push them further.”
A deal heavy on pledges and vague on practicalities