President Donald Trump said that North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat to the US as he arrived back in Washington on Wednesday after his historic summit with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore.
Earlier on Wednesday, Pyongyang said Mr Trump would ease sanctions on North Korea, which are squeezing the impoverished nation, a claim that contrasts with the White House’s rhetoric. In his press conference on Tuesday, Mr Trump said the sanctions would remain until the regime’s nuclear programme was no longer a problem.
Sanctions are the basis for the “maximum pressure” campaign the Trump administration has used to bring Pyongyang back to the negotiation table. The US relies on China, North Korea’s dominant trade partner and benefactor, to enforce international sanctions.
Immediately after the Trump-Kim meeting, Beijing voiced support for revisiting sanctions.
Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, said on Thursday after meeting his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Seoul that there would be no let-up of sanctions until the Kim regime had been denuclearised. Mr Pompeo said the Trump administration hoped to complete the “major disarmament” of North Korea within the next two and a half years, or before the end of Mr Trump’s first term in office.
Washington demands Pyongyang to undertake “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation”, but the North Korean leader has made no real concessions on his country’s nuclear programme, which includes dozens of warheads and long-range missiles. Tuesday’s joint statement committed Pyongyang to merely “work towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, without details on verification, inspection and timetables for giving up its nuclear weapons.
North Korea’s state-controlled news media said the US had agreed to a phased, “step-by-step” denuclearisation process, which has been opposed by US hard-liners like John Bolton, Mr Trump’s national security adviser.
Mr Trump announced after his meeting with Mr Kim that he would halt America’s joint military exercises with South Korea on the peninsula that he said were a “provocation”, endorsing a North Korean view. Pyongyang has long denounced military drills as rehearsals for an invasion of the North. Mr Trump made such an announcement without consulting America’s regional allies, South Korea and Japan. Even the Pentagon was caught off guard. He also indicated his strong desire to eventually remove 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea since the end of the Korean War 65 years ago.
Mr Trump’s concessions to North Korea have exacerbated fears about America’s long-term commitment to safeguarding the region.
Official White House Photos by Joyce N. Boghosian
