NORTH KOREA WANTS TO DENUCLEARIZE WITHIN 28 MONTHS
SEOUL— North Korea’s Kim Jong-un announced for the first time a timeline for denuclearization and agreed to a third summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, officials said on Thursday.
Kim told visiting South Korean officials his faith in US President Donald Trump was “unchanged,” and he wanted denuclearization and an end to hostile relations before the end of Trump’s term in 2021.
Third summit
Kim also agreed to meet Moon in Pyongyang on Sept. 1820 and will discuss “practical measures” toward denuclearization, Moon’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, said on Thursday.
“He particularly emphasized that he has never said anything negative about President Trump,” Chung said, a day after meeting Kim in Pyongyang.
Chung said Kim had stressed the need for the United States to reciprocate North Korea’s initial moves, which have included dismantling a nuclear test site and a missile engine facility.
Fixed stand
North Korea’s official news agency said Kim told Chung and other envoys that it was his “fixed stand” to turn the Korean peninsula into “the cradle of peace without nuclear weapons and free from nuclear threat.”
Chung said Kim showed “frustration over the doubt raised by some parts of the international community about his willingness to denuclearize, and asked us to convey his message to the United States.”
“He said he would appreciate that such good faith is accepted with good faith,” Chung said.
The two Koreas also plan to open before the third summit an inter-Korean liaison office in the North’s border city of Kaesong, staffed by officials from both sides to facilitate consultation, Chung said.
In this year’s talks, North Korea and the United States have been at odds over whether denuclearization or declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War should come first.
The war ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, meaning US-led UN forces, including South Korea, are technically still at war with the North.
US rejects peace
North Korea has long sought a formal end to the war, but US officials have said an end-of-war declaration could weaken North Korea’s incentive for denuclearization.
It would also raise questions about the 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the three-year war.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Pyongyang in July, after which North Korea accused him of making “unilateral and gangster-like demands for denuclearization” while showing little interest in ending the war.
The United States, however, has said it is committed to building a peace mechanism if North Korea denuclearizes.—