Historic summit lays out path to peace
KIM COMMITS TO COMPLETE DENUCLEARISATION; TRUMP’S DECISION TO SUSPEND SOUTH KOREA WAR GAMES STUNS SEOUL
US President Donald Trump shook hands with Kim Jong-un of North Korea yesterday and offered a major concession during their first summit, a momentous step in an improbable courtship between the world’s largest nuclear power and the most reclusive one.
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 sanctions against the North would remain in place until the country did more. Trump’s decision to suspend the war games — which he described as “very provocative” given the continuing negotiations but also “very expensive” — appeared to take South Korea by surprise.
“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.”
Kim thanked Trump for making their face-to-face 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 denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.” But the statement did not go much further than previous ones by North Korea and was short on details.
Asked if Kim had agreed to denuclearise, Trump said: “We’re starting that process very quickly — very, very quickly — absolutely.”
The 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.