North Korea's Kim wants another Trump summit to speed denuclearization: South Korea's Moon

[webfact]

North Korea's Kim wants another Trump summit to speed denuclearization: South Korea's Moon

By Hyonhee Shin and Joyce Lee

 

South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks during a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, September 20, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

 

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's Kim Jong Un wants a second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump soon to hasten denuclearization, but a key goal is declaring an end this year to the 1950-53 Korean War, the South's President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday.

 

Moon said he and Kim spent most of a three-day summit discussing how to break an impasse and restart nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington, which are at odds over which should come first, denuclearization or ending the war.

 

Kim, who recently proposed another summit with Trump after their unprecedented June talks in Singapore, said the North was willing to "permanently dismantle" key missile facilities in the presence of outside experts, and the Yongbyon main nuclear complex, if the United States took corresponding action.

 

The joint statement from the summit stipulates his commitment to a "verifiable, irreversible dismantlement" of the nuclear programmes, and ending the war would be a first U.S. reciprocal step, Moon said.

 

"Chairman Kim expressed his wish that he wanted to complete denuclearization quickly and focus on economic development," Moon told a news conference in Seoul, shortly after returning from the summit with Kim in Pyongyang.

 

"He hoped a second summit with Trump would take place in the near future, in order to move the denuclearization process along quickly."

 

INSPECTIONS

Moon said Kim was also open to inspection of a nuclear test site in the northwest town of Punggye-ri, which he called the North's sole existing facility for underground detonations.

 

While Pyongyang has stopped nuclear and missile tests this year, it failed to keep its pledge to allow international inspections of its dismantling of the Punggye-ri site in May, stirring criticism that the move could be reversed.

 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday he had invited North Korea's foreign minister to meet in New York next week and other Pyongyang officials to Vienna for talks with nuclear envoy Stephen Biegun.

 

Asked on Thursday if those meetings would take place, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said invitations had been sent and added: "We certainly stand ready to meet if they are able to."

 

Nauert said Washington looked forward to a formal readout of the North-South talks in meetings with the South Koreans next week, which will include one between Trump and Moon on Monday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

 

Asked about Pompeo's statement on Wednesday welcoming plans for the dismantlement of all facilities at Yongbyon in the presence of U.S. and IAEA inspectors, Nauert said Moon and Kim had talked about inspectors.

 

"Having IAEA inspectors and United States inspectors be a part of anything is really just a shared understanding," she said.

 

"Any time you have a nuclear situation like this where there is a dismantlement, the expectation is that the IAEA would be part of that, so that would be just the normal course of doing business. We have that shared understanding with the countries."

 

Asked why this detail was not in the document signed by Moon and Kim, Nauert replied: "We have had conversations ... with the government of North Korea and that is our mutual understanding; that is also the understanding between (South) Korea and North Korea. That was one of the things discussed, according to my understanding of it, over the past few days."

 

Nauert did not respond when asked if the United States was willing to take "corresponding measures," except to say: "Nothing can happen in the absence of denuclearization; denuclearization has to come first."

 

The North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, Kim Song, did not reply when asked by reporters on Thursday if his foreign minister would meet Pompeo on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly next week.

 

ENDING WAR

Kim pledged to work toward the "complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula" during two meetings with Moon and his encounter with Trump, but follow-up negotiations on how to implement the vague commitments have since faltered.

 

Washington calls for concrete action, such as a full disclosure of North Korea's nuclear and missile facilities, before satisfying Pyongyang's key demands, including an official end to the war and the easing of international sanctions.

 

The war ended in an armistice, rather than a peace treaty, meaning U.S.-led United Nations forces, including South Korea, are technically still at war with the North.

 

But there have been concerns in South Korea and the United States that ending the war would ultimately prompt China and Russia, if not North Korea, to demand that the United Nations Command (UNC), which overlaps with U.S. forces in South Korea, be disbanded and leave.

 

Seoul aims to jointly announce with the United States an end to the war within this year, a measure Moon said he would discuss with Trump when they meet next week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

 

An end-of-war declaration would not affect the presence of U.S. troops and the UNC in the South, Moon said, adding that Kim shared his view.

 

"It would be a political declaration that would mark a starting point for peace negotiations," Moon said.

 

"A peace treaty would be sealed, as well as normalisation of North Korea-U.S. relations, after the North achieves complete denuclearization."

 

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Joyce Lee; additional repotring by David Brunnstrom in Washington and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; editing by Soyoung Kim, Clarence Fernandez and Lisa Shumaker)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-09-21

[theguyfromanotherforum]

Perhaps he was ronery after all....

[car720]

I smell Xi Jingping in all of this.

[heybruce]

Kim Jong Un doesn't want to negotiate with the informed skeptics in the Trump administration, he wants to negotiate with the clueless and gullible Trump. 

 

At the last meeting Kim got Trump to end joint US-South Korea military exercises in exchange for vague, meaningless "commitments", Kim would love to get more real concessions in exchange for non-concessions.

[bristolboy]

4 hours ago, car720 said:

I smell Xi Jingping in all of this.

Because the North Korean regime takes its orders from Beijing? Apparenty now the worldwide Communist conspiracy has its HQ in Beijing.

[Tug]

Wants more concessions from Donald they are getting what they want easing of sanctions and recognition as a world nuclear power they played us like a fish Donald was outsmarted by a backwoods Asian hillbilly another of Donald’s failures

[sebastion]

Wants more concessions from Donald they are getting what they want easing of sanctions and recognition as a world nuclear power they played us like a fish Donald was outsmarted by a backwoods Asian hillbilly another of Donald’s failures

Why not read the article.

U.S.A won't negotiate anything until they de-nuke.

It must come first before they negotiate.

 

Sent from my EVA-L19 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

[bristolboy]

7 minutes ago, sebastion said:

Why not read the article.

U.S.A won't negotiate anything until they de-nuke.

It must come first before they negotiate.

 

Sent from my EVA-L19 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

Did you read the entire article?

"Washington calls for concrete action, such as a full disclosure of North Korea's nuclear and missile facilities, before satisfying Pyongyang's key demands, including an official end to the war and the easing of international sanctions."

[sebastion]

Did you read the entire article?
"Washington calls for concrete action, such as a full disclosure of North Korea's nuclear and missile facilities, before satisfying Pyongyang's key demands, including an official end to the war and the easing of international sanctions."

We haven't given them anything so far.
Sanctions are still in place.

Heather Nauert states clearly in the article.

"Nauert did not respond when asked if the United States was willing to take "corresponding measures," except to say: "Nothing can happen in the absence of denuclearization; denuclearization has to come first."

That's pretty straightforward.

Sent from my EVA-L19 using Tapatalk

[bristolboy]

1 minute ago, sebastion said:

We haven't given them anything so far.
Sanctions are still in place.

Heather Nauert states clearly in the article.

"Nauert did not respond when asked if the United States was willing to take "corresponding measures," except to say: "Nothing can happen in the absence of denuclearization; denuclearization has to come first."

That's pretty straightforward.

Sent from my EVA-L19 using Tapatalk
 

"Sanctions are still in place." 

Tell that to the Chinese and the Russians.

"Nauert did not respond when asked if the United States was willing to take "corresponding measures," except to say: "Nothing can happen in the absence of denuclearization; denuclearization has to come first."
That's pretty straightforward."

It seems there is some lack of clarity in the administration's positions. And God knows what Trump will give away at the next summit.
 

[sebastion]

"Sanctions are still in place." 
Tell that to the Chinese and the Russians.
"Nauert did not respond when asked if the United States was willing to take "corresponding measures," except to say: "Nothing can happen in the absence of denuclearization; denuclearization has to come first."
That's pretty straightforward."
It seems there is some lack of clarity in the administration's positions. And God knows what Trump will give away at the next summit.
 

What did he give away at the summit in Singapore?

Sent from my EVA-L19 using Tapatalk

[bristolboy]

Just now, sebastion said:

What did he give away at the summit in Singapore?

Sent from my EVA-L19 using Tapatalk
 

He put a halt to joint military exercises. He said he understood how North Korea could feel threatened by them. 

[sebastion]

He put a halt to joint military exercises. He said he understood how North Korea could feel threatened by them. 

I'm glad he did.
$14 million dollars for 3 days of mostly computer generated simulations.

Nobody takes them seriously. It's just flexing.
The bases are still in South Korea and Japan.
That's what Kim wants gone.

Sent from my EVA-L19 using Tapatalk

[bristolboy]

2 minutes ago, sebastion said:

I'm glad he did.
$14 million dollars for 3 days of mostly computer generated simulations.

Nobody takes them seriously. It's just flexing.
The bases are still in South Korea and Japan.
That's what Kim wants gone.

Sent from my EVA-L19 using Tapatalk
 

You and Kim are both glad.

And of course the point isn't whether or not the exercises are useful.

KIm got something for nothing and an implicit acknowledgement that the US presence in South Korea isn't merely defensive. Remember that Trump said he understood why North Korea felt threatened.

And on top of that after the summit Trump tweeted that the problem was solved and that that North Korea no longer posed a nuclear threat. Which gave China and Russia a perfect excuse to push for relaxation of the sanctions.

[heybruce]

26 minutes ago, sebastion said:

I'm glad he did.
$14 million dollars for 3 days of mostly computer generated simulations.

Nobody takes them seriously. It's just flexing.
The bases are still in South Korea and Japan.
That's what Kim wants gone.

Sent from my EVA-L19 using Tapatalk
 

Allied forces who do not practice together can not fight together, and don't present a credible deterrent.  North Korea took them seriously, that's why it would get into such an uproar over them.

 

You stated Trump gave away nothing.  He gave away a lot, and got nothing in return.

Edited September 21, 2018 by heybruce

[bristolboy]

Just now, heybruce said:

Allied forces who do not practice together can not fight together, and don't present a credible deterrence.  North Korea took them seriously, that's why it would get into such an uproar over them.

 

You stated Trump gave away nothing.  He gave away a lot, and got nothing in return.

The fact is the summit meeting added greatly to Kim's prestige. And Trump is still praising Kim:

.'Very Exciting!' President Trump Praises Kim Jong Un for Pledge to Denuclearize

 

President Trump expressed his support Wednesday after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to reduce his country’s nuclear capabilities at a summit this week with southern counterpart, at which denuclearization is high on the agenda.

Kim agreed Wednesday to permanently dismantle his Nyongbyon nuclear facility pending reciprocal measures from the U.S., according to South Korean President Moon Jae In.

“Very exciting!” Trump said at the end of a pair of late-night tweets, which also touted the return of the remains of American Korean War casualties and an announced proposal for North and South Korea to jointly host the 2032 Summer Olympics.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/09/19/trump-calls-north-korea-s-announcement-to-dismantle-main-nuke-site-if-us-takes-steps-too-very-exciting.html

 

Of course, this behaviour from Trump was inevitable because he's pinned his prestige to the success of the negotiations. So foolish to personally intervene when nothing is guaranteed.

 

[heybruce]

2 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

The fact is the summit meeting added greatly to Kim's prestige. And Trump is still praising Kim:

.'Very Exciting!' President Trump Praises Kim Jong Un for Pledge to Denuclearize

 

President Trump expressed his support Wednesday after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to reduce his country’s nuclear capabilities at a summit this week with southern counterpart, at which denuclearization is high on the agenda.

Kim agreed Wednesday to permanently dismantle his Nyongbyon nuclear facility pending reciprocal measures from the U.S., according to South Korean President Moon Jae In.

“Very exciting!” Trump said at the end of a pair of late-night tweets, which also touted the return of the remains of American Korean War casualties and an announced proposal for North and South Korea to jointly host the 2032 Summer Olympics.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/09/19/trump-calls-north-korea-s-announcement-to-dismantle-main-nuke-site-if-us-takes-steps-too-very-exciting.html

 

Of course, this behaviour from Trump was inevitable because he's pinned his prestige to the success of the negotiations. So foolish to personally intervene when nothing is guaranteed.

 

Worth noting that North Korea has not defined what it means by denuclearization, or defined what "reciprocal measures it expects", or offered a schedule, or provided an inventory of weapons, weapon facilities, delivery systems, delivery system facilities, facilities capable of producing nuclear material, facilities producing launch vehicles, allowed international inspectors on its sites....

[Trouble]

I tend to feel that cancelling the the joint exercises is a small price to pay for getting the ball rolling.  Arguing that Trump gave away something and got nothing is a hollow argument since it did not cancel the exercises permanently. The South Korean and American military cooperation is on target and they have been that way since the end of the war.  If one wants to assume Kim now has a lot of prestige in the world now, it really is a false assumption.  He's a ruthless dictator and everyone knows it.  China and Russia play Kim for their own advantage and have to worry that at some future date Kim will shift his thinking if he feels safe to do so.  Who would ever have thought the USA and Vietnam would cooperate like they do these days.  So if putting a temporary halt to the exercises and giving Kim some international attention gets things rolling and ultimately brings about a peace and denuclearization, I say it is a small price if one considers it that.

Edited September 21, 2018 by Trouble

[bristolboy]

4 minutes ago, Trouble said:

I tend to feel that cancelling the the joint exercises is a small price to pay for getting the ball rolling.  Arguing that Trump gave away something and got nothing is a hollow argument since it did not cancel the exercises permanently. The South Korean and American military cooperation is on target and they have been that way since the end of the war.  If one wants to assume Kim now has a lot of prestige in the world now, it really is a false assumption.  He's a ruthless dictator and everyone knows it.  China and Russia play Kim for their own advantage and have to worry that at some future date Kim will shift his thinking if he feels safe to do so.  Who would ever have thought the USA and Vietnam would cooperate like they do these days.  So if putting a temporary halt to the exercises and giving Kim some international attention gets things rolling and ultimately brings about a peace and denuclearization, I say it is a small price if one considers it that.

Except that by any rational evaluation the ball has turned out to be a cube and is going nowhere.