North Korea’s Kim Jong Un says he’s committed to Trump talks
● Plans to rid Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons gain momentum
South Korean president Moon Jae-in has said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has committed himself to sitting down with US President Donald Trump and discussing a “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”.
The Korean leaders’ quickly arranged surprise summit on Saturday – their second meeting in a month – saw bear hugs and broad smiles. However, behind the friendly gestures there appears to be a sense of urgency on both sides of the world’s most heavily armed border.
At the White House, Mr Trump said negotiations over a potential 12 June summit with Mr Kim that he had earlier cancelled are “going along very well”.
Mr Trump told reporters that they are still consider- ing Singapore as the venue for their talks. He said there is a “lot of good will” and denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula would be “a great thing”.
The Koreas’ talks, which Mr Moon said Mr Kim requested, capped a whirlwind 24 hours of diplomatic back-and-forth.
It allowed Mr Moon to push for a Us-north Korean summit that he sees as the best way to ease animosity that had some fearing a war last year.
Mr Kim may see the sit-down with Mr Trump as necessary to easing pressure from crushing sanctions and to winning security assurances in a region surrounded by enemies.
Mr Moon told reporters yesterday that Mr Kim “again made clear his commitment to a complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” and told the South Korean leader that he is willing to cooperate to end confrontation and work toward peace for the sake of the successful North Koreaus summit.
Mr Moon said he told Mr Kim that Mr Trump has a “firm resolve” to end hostile relations with North Korea and
0 Saturday’s meeting capped 24 hours of frenetic diplomacy economic cooperation if Kim implements “complete denuclearisation”.
“What Kim is unclear about is that he has concerns about whether his country can surely trust the United States over its promise to end hostile relations (with North Korea) and provide a security guarantee if they do denuclearisation,” Mr Moon said.
“During the South Koreaus summit, President Trump said the US is willing to clearly put an end to hostile relations (between the US and North Korea) and help (the North) achieve economic prosperity if North Korea conducts denuclearisation.”
Mr Moon said North Korea and the United States will soon start working-level talks to prepare for the Kim-trump summit. He said he expects the talks to go smoothly because Pyongyang and Washington both know what they want from each other.
Mr Kim, in a telling line from a dispatch issued by the North’s state-run news service yesterday, “expressed his fixed will on the historic (North Korea)-us summit talks.”
During Saturday’s summit, the Korean leaders agreed to “positively cooperate with each other to improve (North Korea)-us relations and establish a mechanism for permanent and durable peace.”
They agreed to have their top officials meet again on Friday. Mr Moon said military generals and Red Cross officials from the Koreas will also meet separately to discuss how to ease military tensions and resume reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
Getting this far towards peace has been a surprise given that North Korea had maintained its strident rhetoric – and continued its nuclear and missile tests in 2016 and 2017. This brought a bitter war of words between Mr Trump and the North Korean leadership. But a rapprochement began in January when Mr Kim suggested he was “open to dialogue” with South Korea. The following month the two countries marched under one flag at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.