Trump, Kim sign agreement after historic summit
Tue Jun 12, 2018 08:09:am World
3.7K By Obiaks Blog
U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged on Tuesday to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula while Washington committed to provide security guarantees for its old enemy.
But a joint statement signed at the end of their historic summit in Singapore gave few details on how either goal would be achieved.
"President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," said the statement.
DPRK is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the formal name of North Korea.
Trump said he expected the denuclearization process to start "very, very quickly". U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean officials would hold follow-up negotiations "at the earliest possible date", the statement said.
Political analysts said the summit had yielded only symbolic results and nothing tangible.
"It is unclear if further negotiations will lead to the end goal of denuclearization," said Anthony Ruggiero, senior fellow of Washington's Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. "This looks like a restatement of where we left negotiations more than 10 years ago and not a major step forward."
The document also made no mention of the international sanctions that have crippled North Korea's economy for pursuing its nuclear weapons program.
Nor was there any reference to finally signing a peace treaty. North Korea and the United States were on opposite sides in the 1950-53 Korean War and are technically still at war, as the conflict, in which millions of people died, was concluded only with a truce.
But the joint statement did say the two sides had agreed to recovering the remains of prisoners of war and of those missing in action and repatriating them.
China, the third party to the truce, said it hoped North Korea and the United States could reach a basic consensus on denuclearization.
"At the same time, there needs to be a peace mechanism for the peninsula to resolve North Korea's reasonable security concerns," China's top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, told reporters in Beijing.
If the joint statement does lead to a lasting detente, it could fundamentally change the security landscape of Northeast Asia, just as former U.S. President Richard Nixon visit to Beijing in 1972 led to the transformation of China.
But Li Nan, senior researcher at Pangoal, a Beijing-based Chinese public policy think tank, said the meeting had only symbolic significance.
"It is too early to call it a turning point in North Korea-U.S. relations," Li said.
REUTERS
But a joint statement signed at the end of their historic summit in Singapore gave few details on how either goal would be achieved.
"President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," said the statement.
DPRK is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the formal name of North Korea.
Trump said he expected the denuclearization process to start "very, very quickly". U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean officials would hold follow-up negotiations "at the earliest possible date", the statement said.
Political analysts said the summit had yielded only symbolic results and nothing tangible.
"It is unclear if further negotiations will lead to the end goal of denuclearization," said Anthony Ruggiero, senior fellow of Washington's Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. "This looks like a restatement of where we left negotiations more than 10 years ago and not a major step forward."
The document also made no mention of the international sanctions that have crippled North Korea's economy for pursuing its nuclear weapons program.
Nor was there any reference to finally signing a peace treaty. North Korea and the United States were on opposite sides in the 1950-53 Korean War and are technically still at war, as the conflict, in which millions of people died, was concluded only with a truce.
But the joint statement did say the two sides had agreed to recovering the remains of prisoners of war and of those missing in action and repatriating them.
China, the third party to the truce, said it hoped North Korea and the United States could reach a basic consensus on denuclearization.
"At the same time, there needs to be a peace mechanism for the peninsula to resolve North Korea's reasonable security concerns," China's top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, told reporters in Beijing.
If the joint statement does lead to a lasting detente, it could fundamentally change the security landscape of Northeast Asia, just as former U.S. President Richard Nixon visit to Beijing in 1972 led to the transformation of China.
But Li Nan, senior researcher at Pangoal, a Beijing-based Chinese public policy think tank, said the meeting had only symbolic significance.
"It is too early to call it a turning point in North Korea-U.S. relations," Li said.
REUTERS
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