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SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea's Kim Jong Un has given his first line for denuclearization for the end of US President Donald Trump's first term and has accepted a third summit with his South Korean counterpart.
Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet in Pyongyang from September 18-20 and discuss "practical measures" for denuclearization, said Chung Eui-yong, a national security advisor.
The summit could give new impetus to denuclearization talks between North Korea and the United States, after Trump canceled the visit of his secretary of state to Pyongyang last month, citing the absence of progress.
Kim told South Korean officials that his trust in Trump was "unchanged" and that he wanted the denuclearization and the end of hostile relations with the United States before the end of Trump's first term in early 2021, he said. Chung.
"He particularly pointed out that he had never said anything negative about President Trump," Chung said.
These remarks represent Kim's first timetable for the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
In previous failed negotiations, North Korea has said it may consider abandoning its nuclear program if the United States provides security assurances by removing South Korean troops from the South and Japan.
US officials involved in the latest negotiations said North Korea had refused to start talks on defining "denuclearization" or other key terms such as "verifiable" and "irreversible". economic pressure.
Chung said Kim stressed the need for the US to do the same with North Korea's initial initiatives, which included the dismantling of a nuclear test site and a nuclear facility. missile engine.
The US embassy in Seoul has said it has no information to share on the subject.
FRUSTRATION
North Korea's official KCNA news agency said Kim had told the South that his position was to make the Korean peninsula "a cradle of peace without nuclear weapons, without nuclear threat" .
Chung said Kim had expressed "his frustration at the doubts raised by some parts of the international community about his desire to denuclearize and asked us to convey his message to the United States."
"He said that he would appreciate that such good faith be accepted in good faith," Chung said. "He has expressed his strong desire to take more proactive steps towards denuclearization if action is taken in response to the preventive measures taken by the North."
US officials have already said they have already made concessions, such as stopping joint military exercises with South Korea.
During his meeting with Kim, Chung sent a message from Trump and will forward Kim's comments to John Bolton, US National Security Adviser, later on Thursday, Moon spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said. .
Trump spoke to Moon in the evening before Chung's trip and asked Moon to act as "chief negotiator" between Washington and Pyongyang, the spokesman said.
WHAT HAPPENS FIRST?
Kim and Trump held a landmark summit in Singapore in June, where they agreed to work towards full denuclearization. But negotiations have made little progress, as signs of North Korea keeping on its weapons have emerged.
The discussion is about whether denuclearization or the end of the 1950-53 Korean War should be the first.
The war ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty, which means that American forces led by the United States, including South Korea, are technically still at war with the North.
"The United States should not delay in making an end-of-war declaration, promised by the US president at the Singapore summit," the official newspaper Rodong Sinmun said Thursday.
US officials said the statement could weaken North Korea's push for denuclearization and create uncertainty about the goal of 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the three-year war.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Pyongyang in July, after which North Korea accused him of making "unilateral and gangster-like denuclearization demands" while paying little attention to the end of the war.
"It looks like Kim is trying to dispel worries that negotiations might fail or fail, knowing that Washington is losing patience," said Koh Yu-hwan, professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University. in Seoul.
"Kim also said he needed some kind of evidence that Trump abandoned the hostile US policy before moving on to denuclearization. Kim tries to prove his sincerity.
Report by Hyonhee Shin and Joyce Lee; Additional report by Cynthia Kim in SEOUL and John Walcott in WASHINGTON; Written by Soyoung Kim; Edited by Christopher Cushing
