North KoreAN leAder’S opeNiNg gAMbit wiNS prAiSe deSpite doubtS

tokyo — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has finally broken his silence on what he plans to bring to the table during his summits with the South Korean and US presidents, and it doesn’t have a whole lot to do with tossing out his hard-won nuclear arsenal.

Instead, Kim appears to be maneuvering toward his own big “get” — the chance to sit down with President Donald Trump on an essentially equal basis as the head of a nuclear-armed nation. The end of North Korea’s nuclear program, meanwhile, isn’t looking any closer than it was before.

North Korea for decades has been pushing a concept of denuclearization that bears no resemblance to the American definition, vowing to keep pursuing nuclear development unless Washington offers ironclad guarantees of its security and removes its nearly 30,000 troops from the Korean Peninsula.

This time around, Kim seems to be more flexible than he had been previously regarding the troops. His latest statement echoed Pyongyang’s hope for security assurances and for the day when the world will have no nuclear weapons.

But it also unapologetically stressed that his country is now a nuclear power, and the message between the lines is that the United States should simply accept that and treat him as an equal.

Kim praised his policy of developing nuclear weapons as a “miraculous” success.” A resolution passed by the committee afterward went on to explicitly state North Korea’s promise to be a responsible nuclear power that would never use nuclear weapons “unless there are nuclear threats and nuclear provocations” against it.

Even so, the announcement, which also stressed Kim’s desire to turn his focus to economy, played very well in world capitals.

Just last year, about the only messages coming out of Pyongyang were vitriolic threats of merciless retaliation and warnings of the gathering dark clouds of nuclear war. Now, Kim is claiming he can be more magnanimous because “a fresh climate of detente and peace is being created on the Korean Peninsula and the region and dramatic changes are being made in the international political landscape,” according to the North’s state-run media.

There is also a lot of room for positive results to come from Kim’s summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, set for next Friday, and Trump, expected in May or early June.

The North and South may agree to allow more reunions for families that were divided by the Korean War, and Kim is reportedly open to releasing three Americans now in North Korean. —