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WASHINGTON (AP) – North Korean Kim Jong Un is no longer a "little rocket man". President Donald Trump is not an "American dotard" mentally disturbed.
In the year following the start of Trump's debates, the two leaders abandoned the threats of flattery to fuel fears of a nuclear conflict with North Korea.
And there is new hope that the brutal change of the US president from coercion to negotiation may yield results by prompting Kim to stop or even abandon his nuclear weapons program.
Trump will address world leaders at the United Nations on Tuesday after the upbeat summit between South Korea and North Korea, where Kim has pledged to dismantle a major rocket launch site and the largest nuclear complex in the north at Nyongbyon .
North Korea remains a long and long way to go before renouncing its nuclear arsenal, and the United States has tightened sanctions, without easing them. However, the last 12 months have been marked by a remarkable change of atmosphere between the opponents, which has surprised even the former US envoy to North Korea.
"If someone told me last year that North Korea would stop nuclear testing, stop missile testing and release the remaining American prisoners and that they would even consider dismantling it." Nyongbyon, I would have taken this to the rhythm, "said Joseph Yun, who resigned in March and has since left the US diplomatic service.
Since Trump and Kim held the first summit between US and North Korean leaders in Singapore in June, Trump has missed no chance to congratulate "President Kim" and Kim has expressed "confidence" in the US President . "
But progress has been slow compared to the vague goal they agreed on – the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, which has eluded American presidents for a quarter of a century. The United States wants to do this in January 2021, when Trump will finish his first term.
Although Kim will not be heading to New York next week, meetings could be decisive in deciding whether a second Trump-Kim summit will take place soon.
State Secretary Mike Pompeo has invited his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho to a meeting in New York, and Trump will consult with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, recently from his third summit with Kim this year. It was during this meeting in Pyongyang that the North Korean leader launched his tempting offers to close the key facilities of his weapons programs that revived the prospects for talks between the United States and North Korea.
Yun, who spoke with reporters on Friday at the US Institute for Peace in Washington, said the US goal of denuclearization in two years was unrealistic, but the bid to close Nyongbyon is important and offers a way forward.
It's far from last September. After Trump's thundering speech, Yun's first thought was about the need to avoid a war. The US president promised to "totally destroy North Korea" if the United States was forced to defend itself or defend its allies against the nuclear weapons of the North. "The rocket man is on a suicide mission for him and his regime," said the president.
His brutal speech sparked an extraordinary, almost surreal exchange of insults. Kim issued a statement from Pyongyang, written in a harsh manner, doubling the trump to the thin skin of an "American dotard" mentally disturbed. A day later, the top diplomat from the North warned that he could test an explosion of a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.
Tensions have eased considerably since then and the international consensus on North Korea's economic pressure on disarmament has emerged.
The United States accuses Russia of allowing the illegal sale of oil to North Korea. Trump also criticized China, which has fraternal relations with the North and is involved in a trade war with the United States for conducting more trade with its former ally. Sanctions could even become a sore point for South Korea. Moon is eager to revive economic cooperation with North Korea to consolidate relations in the divided peninsula.
All of this will increase the pressure on Washington to negotiate with Pyongyang – providing the incentives Kim seeks to obtain, even though the weapons capabilities he has accumulated violate international law. It is likely that a statement on the formal cessation of the Korean War as a marker of "hostility" and lightening of sanctions in the United States be lifted.
This could be politically unpleasant in Washington, just as Kim hopes his commitment to denuclearization will be respected in Singapore.
Frank Aum, a former Pentagon adviser on North Korea, warned that tensions could rise again if the US failed to make progress at the end of the year. war preparations. Trump has decided to cancel the exercises this summer in concession to Kim.
"Things can go pretty fast," said Aum. "We have seen him go from bad to good and it could come back soon enough to evil."
