Will Trump, Kim bridge gap on nuclear arms?
SINGAPORE — When President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shake hands for the first time and sit down one-on-one here Tuesday, the bonhomie they plan to project will mask the huge gulf between their two countries as diplomats struggle to broker a deal for the rogue state to abandon its nuclear weapons.
The decision by Trump and Kim to begin their Singapore summit without their top advisers or nuclear arms specialists in the room underscores that their real goal is to develop a rapport and stage a global spectacle rather than to ink the technical details of a denuclearization accord.
Both nations have sought to lower expectations for an immediate breakthrough this week in Singapore. Trump has described the summit as the first step in what could be a lengthy process, dangling the possibility of inviting Kim to the United States for a second meeting. And in an indication that Kim is like-minded, North Korean state media described a process of normalizing relations with the United States that would unfold over time.
When Trump meets Kim on Tuesday, the two leaders plan to shake hands and take a ceremonial walk before cameras at the Capella hotel on Singapore’s tropical resort island of Sentosa, according to a senior U.S. official. After they hold an hour or two of private discussions accompanied only by their interpreters, Trump and Kim will be joined by their top advisers for a more traditional bilateral meeting.
Trump and Kim’s representatives labored Monday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel to find agreement on the substance of an eventual nuclear arms deal. The talks were preceded by negotiations the previous month in New York and the Panmunjom truce village in North Korea, in the demilitarized zone with South Korea.
The working-level sessions, including those led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, foundered repeatedly over basic agenda items and an inability to close fundamental gaps in understanding over North Korean denuclearization.
Pompeo told reporters Monday that the day-long talks were going well, but he would not provide details.
“North Korea has previously confirmed to us their willingness to denuclearize, and we are eager to see whether those words prove sincere,” Pompeo said.
Trump hopes to close the gap between the two sides during his personal tete-a-tete with Kim.
A key stumbling block in the negotiations has been what comes first. The North Koreans want a firm security guarantee, meaning a promise that the United States will not attack or seek to overthrow Kim. The Americans want a substantive denuclearization pledge.
“It’s not surprising that they’re stuck,” said Victor Cha, a former nation- al security official who negotiated with North Korea in the George W. Bush administration.
“They can’t even get past first base on the security assurances because the North Koreans will never define what it actually means to end the hostile policy,” said Cha, who Trump considered as a possible ambassador to South Korea.
Leading Monday’s talks in Singapore were veteran U.S. diplomat Sung Kim and North Korea’s Choe Son Hui, a vice foreign minister with a long history of dealing with the United States. They were still trying to draft a joint statement outlining the areas of agreement for Trump and Kim Jong Un. Typically such precooked statements, or communiques, are worked out far in advance of summits.
U.S. negotiators have been unable to get the North Koreans to offer a substantive pledge on denuclearization upfront, the chief demand of the Trump administration.
The issue plagued a May 27 meeting in Panmunjom between U.S. and North Korean diplomats, according to a person familiar with the discussions. The talks began with the North Korean side, led by Choe, saying denuclearization should not be on the table for the Singapore summit – a position rejected by the Americans as a non-starter.
The two sides did not meet for two days, in part because the North Korean delegation did not have the authority to negotiate without additional guidance from Pyongyang. They then reconvened briefly May 30 for a session that made little progress in resolving the impasse.
At the same time, North Korea sent former spy chief Kim Yong Chol to meet with Pompeo in New York.