WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump pledged on Thursday (Sep 6) to complete a deal on denuclearising the Korean peninsula together with North Korean leader Kim…
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump pledged on Thursday (Sep 6) to complete a deal on denuclearising the Korean peninsula together with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, signalling that negotiations remain alive after weeks of an apparent deadlock.
“Kim Jong Un of North Korea proclaims ‘unwavering faith in President Trump.’ Thank you to Chairman Kim. We will get it done together!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The tweet came hours after Kim renewed his own commitment to the goal of denuclearisation in talks with a special envoy from Seoul, ahead of a summit planned in Pyongyang scheduled for Sep 18-20 with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
“The north and the south should further their efforts to realise the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
South Korean national security advisor Chung Eui-yong, who met with Kim, said the North Korean leader also emphasised that his “trust in Trump remains unchanged,” the comment which led to the US president’s tweet.
Chung added that Kim expressed his intention to work closely with the United States to achieve denuclearisation “in the first official term of President Trump,” which ends in January 2021.
END TO IMPASSE?
The enthusiastic comments came 12 days after Trump summarily cancelled a trip to Pyongyang by his top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, which was aimed at getting the discussions on North Korea’s nuclear talks back on track three months after Trump’s landmark summit with Kim in Singapore.
