Kim Jong Un reaffirms ‘nuclear-free’ commitment

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and to the suspension of all future longrange missile tests, while also expressing faith in President Donald Trump’s efforts to settle a nuclear impasse, South Korean officials and the North’s official media said Thursday.

Kim also reportedly expressed frustration with outside skepticism about his nuclear disarmament intentions and demanded that his “goodwill measures” be met in kind.

The trove of comments from Kim was filtered through his propaganda specialists in Pyongyang and the South Korean government, which is keen on keeping engagement alive. They come amid a growing standoff with the United States on how to proceed with diplomacy meant to settle a nuclear dispute that had many fearing war last year.

Only hours earlier, a South Korean delegation returned from talks with Kim where they set up a summit for Sept. 18-20 in Pyongyang between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, their third meeting since April.

Each statement reportedly made by Kim will be parsed for clues about the future of the nuclear diplomacy.

His reported commitment to a nuclearfree Korea, for instance, wasn’t new information — Kim has repeatedly declared similar intentions before — but it allows hopes to rise that negotiators can get back on track after the recriminations that followed Kim’s meeting in June with Trump in Singapore.

The impasse between North Korea and the United States, with neither side seemingly willing to make any substantive move, has generated widespread skepticism over Trump’s claims that Kim will really dismantle his nuclear weapons program.