Trump: 'World will see a major change'
In concession to Kim Jong Un, president ends joint military exercises with South Korea. U.S.-North Korea pact doesn’t go much beyond earlier ones, is short on details, critics say.
SINGAPORE — President Donald Trump shook hands with Kim Jong Un of North Korea on Tuesday and offered a major concession during the first summit meeting between their nations, a momentous step in an improbable courtship between the world’s largest nuclear power and the most reclusive one. Trump and Kim set aside their threats in a gamble that for now, at least, personal diplomacy can counteract decades of enmity and distrust.
Emerging from a day of talks in Singapore and speaking to reporters for more than an hour, Trump said that he was suspending joint military exercises with South Korean forces and that he was confident Kim would begin dismantling his nuclear arsenal “very quickly.”
But Trump said economic sanc- tions against the North would remain in place until the North did more.
Trump’s decision to suspend the war games — which he described as “very expensive” but also “very provocative” given the negotiations — appeared to take South Korea by surprise.
It was the latest twist in the international drama over the fate of the North’s nuclear program and a complete reversal by the Trump administration, which
had previously said the exercises were important to defend an ally and not negotiable. It was also a remarkable bet by Trump that he can persuade Kim to follow through on pledges to surrender his nuclear weapons that are almost identical to those the North has made — and broken — in the past.
“We’re very proud of what took place today,” Trump said. “I think our whole relationship with North Korea and the Korean Peninsula is going to be a very much different situation than it has in the past.”
In a televised ceremony in which the two leaders signed a joint statement, Kim thanked Trump for making their face-toface talks possible. “We had a historic meeting and decided to leave the past behind,” he said, adding that “the world will see a major change.”
In the statement they signed, Trump “committed to provide security guarantees” to North Korea, and Kim “reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
But the statement did not go much further than previous ones and was short on details, including any timetable or verification measures.
Asked if Kim had agreed to denuclearize, Trump said, “We’re starting that process very quickly — very, very quickly — absolutely.”
The joint statement said the two nations would hold “follow-on negotiations” led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a high-level North Korean official “at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes” of the summit meeting.
It also said the two countries would “join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime” on the divided peninsula, meaning talks to reduce military tensions that could eventually lead to a formal peace treaty to end the Korean War.