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SEOUL, South Korea – Offering an olive branch to President Trump, Kim Jong-un told a South Korean representative that he wanted to denuclearize North Korea before the end of Mr. Trump's tenure in early 2021 said the emissary Thursday.
Expressing frustration over what he called Washington's failure to negotiate in good faith, Kim told envoy Chung Eui-yong that he still trusted Trump. He said he had never spoken badly about the US leader, even to his closest aides, since the two met in Singapore on June 12, according to Mr. Chung.
The president responded on Twitter early Thursday, expressing appreciation for Kim's "unwavering confidence in President Trump." He added, "We will do everything together!"
Chung was sent by South Korea's President Moon Jae-in to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in hopes of relaunching stalled talks between the North and the United States on the denuclearization of North Korea. North Korea. Moon plans to travel to Pyongyang on September 18 to meet with Kim and discuss improving relations with Korea, including potential economic cooperation.
At a televised press conference in Seoul, Chung said Kim expressed frustration that his commitment to nuclear disarmament, which he had expressed met with Mr Moon in April and with Mr Trump in June, was not taken seriously by much of the world. Kim said that while North Korea has already taken significant steps towards denuclearization, Washington was not doing enough in return, Chung said.
"He has expressed his willingness to take more active measures for denuclearization if the measures already taken by North Korea are matched with corresponding measures" from the United States, Chung said.
"He has made it clear that his confidence in President Trump remains – and will remain – unchanged, even though there have been recent difficulties in negotiations between the North and the United States," Chung said. "He said he wanted to be able to eliminate 70 years of hostile history with the United States and improve North Korea, the United States. relations and achieve denuclearization during President Trump's first term.
Chung said Kim gave him messages to relay to Washington, which officials said was being sent to his US counterpart, John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser. Mr. Chung did not disclose their content, other than to say that Mr. Kim wanted Washington's assurance that he was not mistaken when he engaged in the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Taken literally, Kim's remarks, relayed by the South Korean envoy, indicated that North Korea was ready to conclude a denuclearization agreement with Mr. Trump, more inclined to engage North Korea. than its predecessors. They also suggested that Mr Kim could accept the rapid denuclearization that the Trump administration sought – for the appropriate incentives.
The Singapore meeting made Trump the first US president sitting down to meet a North Korean leader. He has since boasted of his "warm" relationship with the dictator, who launched missiles capable of reaching the continental United States and was accused of serious human rights violations, in particular the summary executions of his uncle and other political enemies.
His administration maintained a harder line. Thursday, The Justice Ministry said it accused a North Korean during the piracy of Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014 and accused the North of a vast plot that has caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of losses worldwide.
Analysts said Kim is courting Trump in the hope of separating him from his hard-nosed advisers, to prevent the president from reverting to threats of military action he made last year.
"Kim Jong-a saves time," said Lee Byong-chul, a member of the Institute for Peace and Cooperation in Seoul. "He probably saw that there was nothing good to provoke Trump," especially when the American president "is facing deeper and deeper legal problems with him and his administration."
The North Korean Central News Agency said Kim reaffirmed North Korea's commitment to denuclearize in talks with Chung. But it was not possible to say whether Mr. Kim would make any significant progress towards this goal.
Mr. Kim did not offer to provide a complete inventory of nuclear weapons and fissile materials, as requested by Washington. Mr. Kim also did not propose a detailed plan for disarmament.
He also reiterated his country's longstanding claim that denuclearization should include the removal of a "nuclear threat" for North Korea, a common reference to US military exercises in the region.
At their meeting in Singapore, Trump and Kim pledged to "build" new relationships and "build a lasting and stable peace regime," while Kim agreed to "work toward denuclearization complete "of the Korean peninsula.
But the negotiations of their diplomats have since stalled over differences over how to carry out this agreement drafted in vague terms. Mr. Trump, after boasting of having largely solved the North Korean nuclear crisis, Abruptly canceled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's planned visit to Pyongyang last week, citing lack of progress in denuclearization negotiations.
North Korea insists that it will move towards denuclearization only in "phases" and in exchange for "simultaneous" reciprocal concessions from Washington, a principle that Mr. Kim reiterated when he met with the southern envoy. Korean.
Chung said Kim had mentioned a series of confidence-building measures taken by his country this year, including a moratorium on nuclear tests and missiles, the demolition of his country's only nuclear test site and dismantling. a missile test facility.
He said Mr. Kim had objected to the skepticism that had greeted these actions in some circles, such as the suspicion that North Korea could reactivate its nuclear testing site. Mr. Kim stated that the underground site had been so completely destroyed that no further testing could be done. Kim also said that the missile engine test facility was the only one in the north and that its withdrawal meant a "complete halt to long-range ballistic missile testing," Chung said.
The most immediate reciprocity that North Korea wants Washington is to declare the end of the Korean War, interrupted by an armistice in 1953.
But US officials fear that once such a statement is made, North Korea will demand that the United States stop conducting joint military exercises with South Korea and withdraw its tens of thousands of soldiers based in this region.
Mr. Kim rejected these concerns, saying the statement would have "nothing to do with" the South Korean-American alliance or any withdrawal of US troops, Chung said.
Moon's spokesman said on Thursday that Trump, in a recent conversation with Moon, had asked South Korea to be "chief negotiator" between the United States and North Korea . But Washington has also repeatedly warned South Korea against improving ties with Pyongyang without tangible progress toward denuclearization.
Lee Sung-yoon, professor of Korean studies at Tufts University, said that South Korea was eager to improve its relations and that it was exaggerating its desire to denuclearize. He added that Mr. Chung would convey "happy" messages from Pyongyang to the White House and argued that Mr. Trump "could do business with Kim".
