North Korea seeks denuclearization by 2021

SEOUL, South Korea — Offering an olive branch to President Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un told a South Korean envoy that he wanted to denuclearize North Korea before Trump’s current term ends in early 2021, the envoy said Thursday.

Expressing frustration over what he called Washington’s failure to negotiate in good faith, Kim told the envoy, Chung Eui-yong, that he still had confidence in Trump.

He said he had never spoken badly of the U.S. leader, even to his closest aides, since the two met in Singapore on June 12, according to Chung.

The president responded on Twitter early Thursday, expressing appreciation for Kim’s “unwavering faith in President Trump.” He added, “We will get it done together!”

Chung was sent by President Moon Jae-in of South Korea to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Wednesday in hopes of reviving the stalled talks between the North and the United States over how to denuclearize North Korea. Moon plans to go to Pyongyang on Sept. 18 to meet with Kim and discuss improving the Koreas’ relationship, including potential economic cooperation.

At a televised news conference in Seoul, Chung said Kim had voiced frustration that his commitment to nuclear disarmament, which he expressed when he met with Moon in April and with Trump in June, was not taken seriously by much of the world.

Kim said that while North Korea had already taken important steps toward denuclearization, Washington was not doing enough in return, Chung said.

“He strongly expressed his will to take more active steps for denuclearization if the actions North Korea has already taken are matched by corresponding measures” from the United States, Chung said.

“He made it clear that his trust in President Trump remains — and will remain — unchanged, even though there have recently been some difficulties in negotiations between the North and the United States,” Chung said.

“He said he wished he could eliminate 70 years of hostile history with the United States, improve North Korea-U.S. relations and realize denuclearization within the first term of President Trump.”

Chung said Kim gave him messages to relay to Washington, which officials said were being sent to his U.S. counterpart, John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser.

Chung did not reveal their contents, except to say that Kim wanted Washington’s assurances that he had not made a mistake when he committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Kim’s remarks, as relayed by the South Korean envoy, signaled that North Korea was willing to strike a denuclearization deal personally with Trump, who has been more eager to engage North Korea than any of his predecessors.

They also suggested Kim could accept the rapid denuclearization the Trump administration has sought — for the right incentives.

The Singapore meeting made Trump the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader.

The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said Kim had reaffirmed North Korea’s commitment to denuclearize during his meetings with Chung. But it fell short of saying whether Kim would take major steps toward that goal.

Kim has not offered to provide a full inventory of nuclear weapons and fissile materials, as Washington has demanded. Nor has Kim offered any detailed plan for disarmament.

He also repeated his country’s long-standing demand that denuclearization must include the removal of a “nuclear threat” to North Korea, a common reference to U.S. military exercises in the region.

The most immediate reciprocal step North Korea wants from Washington is to declare an end to the Korean War, which was halted with an armistice in 1953.

But U.S. officials fear that once such a declaration is made, North Korea will demand that the United States stop conducting joint military exercises with South Korea and withdraw its tens of thousands of troops based there.

Kim dismissed such concerns, saying that the declaration would “have nothing to do with” the South Korean-U.S. alliance or any withdrawal of U.S. troops, Chung said.