North Korea’s Kim sets denuclearisation time line, prompting thanks from Trump

Trump welcomed Kim’s remarks in a trademark Tweet.

“Kim Jong Un of North Korea proclaims ‘unwavering faith in President Trump.’ Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!” Trump wrote.

Trump had previously hailed his landmark June 12 summit with Kim as a success and said the North Korean nuclear threat was over, despite little evidence to back that assertion.

In previous, failed talks, North Korea has said it could consider giving up its nuclear program if the United States provided security guarantees by removing troops from South Korea and withdrawing its so-called nuclear umbrella of deterrence from the South and Japan.

US officials involved in the latest negotiations have said North Korea has refused to even start discussions about defining denuclearisation and has insisted the United States must first agree to simultaneous steps to reduce sanctions pressure.

Some analysts suggested Kim was flattering Trump in hopes of dividing the president from advisers who have advocated a tougher US stand.

“Kim just owns Trump. He knows his mark,” Vipin Narang, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who specializes in nuclear issues, said in a message on Twitter.

‘ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF WORK TO DO’

Pompeo, on a trip to New Delhi, said there was still “an enormous amount of work to do” on the denuclearisation issue.

He visited Pyongyang in July, after which North Korea accused him of making “unilateral and gangster-like demands for denuclearization”.

Asked about US intelligence that North Korea was still advancing its weapons programs, Pompeo noted Pyongyang had ceased its nuclear tests and test-firing missiles, which he said was a “good thing.”

“But the work of convincing Chairman Kim to make this strategic shift that we’ve talked about for a brighter future for the people of North Korea continues,” Pompeo said.

The State Department later said Pompeo was sending his newly appointed North Korea envoy, Stephen Biegun, to South Korea, China and Japan from September 10-15.

Signaling that Washington’s concerns extend beyond Pyongyang’s nuclear program, the U.S. government on Thursday charged and sanctioned an alleged North Korean hacker over the 2017 global WannaCry ransomware cyberattack, the 2014 cyber assault on Sony Corp. and other “malign cyber activities.”

Chung said Kim had stressed the need for the United States to reciprocate North Korea’s initial moves, which have included dismantling a nuclear test site and a missile engine facility.

“We support progress in inter-Korean relations and President Moon’s statements that such progress must go hand-in-hand with denuclearization,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council (NSC) said when asked about the meeting

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said Kim told the South’s envoys that his “fixed stand” was to turn the Korean peninsula into “a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons, free from nuclear threat”.

Chung said Kim showed “frustration over the doubt raised by some parts of the international community about his willingness to denuclearize, and asked us to convey his message to the United States”.

“He expressed his strong will to carry out more proactive measures toward denuclearization if action is taken in response to the North’s preemptive steps,” Chung said.

Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, said: “Looks like Kim is trying to wash away worries that talks could stall or fail, knowing well that Washington is losing patience.”

US officials have previously said they have already made conciliatory gestures, such as suspending joint military exercises with South Korea.

During his meeting with Kim, Chung delivered a message from Trump and will relay comments from Kim to US National Security Advisor John Bolton, Moon’s spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom, told reporters. Chung later spoke to Bolton, the NSC official said.

Trump spoke to Moon on the evening before Chung’s trip and asked Moon to act as “chief negotiator” between Washington and Pyongyang, the spokesman said.

However, a three-way summit between Trump, Kim and Moon – an idea that South Korea has floated – is not expected on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this month, Chung said, suggesting that Kim is not likely to become the first North Korean leader to attend the gathering.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised the Koreas for their trust-building efforts and expressed hope for further progress toward “complete and verifiable denuclearization,” his spokesman said.

WHAT HAPPENS FIRST?

Kim and Trump held an unprecedented summit in Singapore in June, in which the North Korean leader made a broad, vague commitment to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. But negotiations have stalled, while signs North Korea has maintained work on its weapons have emerged.

Under discussion is whether North Korean denuclearisation or declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War should come first.

The war ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, meaning US-led UN forces are technically still at war with the North.

“The United States shouldn’t delay any further an end-of-war declaration, which the US president promised at the Singapore summit,” the North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said.

US officials have said such a declaration could weaken North Korea’s incentive for denuclearisation, and create uncertainty about the purpose of 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea.