‘Bumpy road’ to summit
SINGAPORE (AP) – It will be a “bumpy road” to the nuclear negotiations with North Korea later this month, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warned Sunday, telling his South Korean and Japanese counterparts they must maintain a strong defensive stance so the diplomats can negotiate from a position of strength.
Mattis was speaking at the start of a meeting with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo and Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera on the final day of the ShangriLa Dialogue security conference. He said allies must remain vigilant.
“We can anticipate, at best, a bumpy road to the negotiations,” Mattis said. “In this moment we are steadfastly committed to strengthening even further our defense cooperation as the best means for preserving the peace.”
Plans are moving forward for a nuclear weapons summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore. And Mattis repeated the US position that North Korea will only receive relief from UN national security sanctions when it demonstrates “verifiable and irreversible steps” to denuclearization.
Through an interpreter, Song said that this is a great turning point as North Korea takes its first steps toward denuclearization.
“Of course, given North Korea’s past, we must be cautious in approaching this,” he added that some of North Korea’s recent measures “give us reasons to be positive and one can be cautiously optimistic as we move forward.”
MILITARY SHAKEUP
North Korea’s top three military officials have been removed from their posts, a senior US official said on Sunday. The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was commenting on a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that all three of the North’s top military officials were believed to have been replaced.
US officials believe there was some dissension in the military about Kim’s approaches to South Korea and the United States.
The US official did not identify the three military officials.
Citing an unnamed intelligence official, Yonhap said No Kwang Chol, first vice minister of the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, had replaced Pak Yong Sik as defense chief, while Ri Myong Su was replaced by his deputy, Ri Yong Gil.
The White House, State Department, CIA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to requests for official comment.
All of the newly promoted officials are younger than their predecessors, according to Yonhap, especially Ri Yong Gil, 63, who is 21 years younger than Ri Myong Su.