North Korea’s Kim wants another Trump summit to speed denuclearisation
In this image made from video provided by Korea Broadcasting System, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, left, poses with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a photo on the podium upon arrival in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018.
Kim also pledged establishing closer ties with the South.
There were also agreements on inter-Korean relations such as a joint Olympic bid.
The Korean summit comes as the USA effort to get North Korea to shut down its nuclear weapons program has met with mixed results.
Imagine North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rolling through South Korea’s ultra-modern capital in an armored limousine flanked by crew-cut bodyguards running in crisp, military formation – the same streets where millions protested two years ago to bring down a corrupt government.
The catch is that Kim wants the U.S.to take unspecified “corresponding steps” – a likely reference to North Korea’s desire for the U.S.to declare a formal end to the Korean War, in which fighting ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.
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. He also set a January 2021 deadline for North Korea’s denuclearization.
While the future of the denuclearization talks is subject to the degree of concessions to be offered from Washington, Snyder said upcoming reciprocal action from the United States could include US commitment to guarantee the North’s security.
At the summit, South Korean Minister of National Defense Song Young-moo and First Vice Minister of People’s Armed Forces of North Korea No Kwang Chul signed a comprehensive military agreement to halt military exercises along the military demarcation line by November 1 and remove 11 guard posts in the DMZ by year’s end.
“We have agreed to make the Korean Peninsula a land of peace that is free from nuclear weapons and nuclear threat, ” Mr Kim said Wednesday as the two leaders announced their agreement. A peace treaty would also mean the withdrawal of United Nations observers from the 38th parallel and the dealing with the inner-Korean partition would be left completely up to the Koreas.
It is an important caveat – Moon told reporters on his return to Seoul that the USA would need to “end hostile relations with North Korea and provide security guarantees for the North Korean regime”.
Kim’s has previously visited the mountain around major developments in North Korea, such as visiting in late 2013 before he executed top officials including his uncle Jang Song Thaek, and after North Korea’s fifth nuclear test in 2016, North Korea watchers say. “We have lived together for 5,000 years and lived in separation for 70 years”. The US sees North Korea’s nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip for dropping sanctions, but North Korea sees its nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip for maintaining the regime’s security.
‘A peace treaty would be sealed, as well as normalisation of North Korea-U.S. relations, after the North achieves complete denuclearization’.
The sudden return to diplomacy contrasted with weeks of doubts within the administration about North Korea’s intentions to negotiate in good faith.
Earlier today South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a joint press conference in Pyongyang.
North Korea now faces worldwide sanctions that limit nearly all of its exports and strongly limit imports from its few trading partners. “Many, particularly in Seoul, are advocating relief or release from sanctions”.
The aim, as South Korean National Security Council Director Chung Eui-yong put it, is to work with the worldwide community to “provide North Korea with all the support and encouragement to make the right choices for itself”. “In this way, we could maintain the current momentum for peace and expand peace on the Korean peninsula to the whole region”, Do said. Moon took the bottle and dipped it in the lake, combining water from the Korean Peninsula’s most iconic volcanoes.