Riddled by allegations and investigations at home Trump is hoping to achieve a breakthrough in Korea through talks with North Korea Kim Jong Un
SEOUL, South Korea – Achieving peace on the Korean peninsula has been a task that every modern world leader has focussed on at one point in their tenure.
Riddled by allegations and investigations at home, and hoping to achieve victory in a region where none of his predecessors have found a breakthrough – the U. S. President Donald Trump has had a roller coaster ride with Korea.
While relations started out initially with heated exchanges, and at one point late last year, it appeared that a nuclear war was about to break out – things soon changed pace, for the better.
Striking a diplomatic tone and promising a better future, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un entered the new year with the vow to end global fear of devastation that his nuclear weapons had sparked over the last few years.
From then on, a breakthrough came swiftly and left many experts watching the progress agape, yet smelling a nasty plot and urging caution.
Then came another tumultuous few weeks, after the North Korea leader, Kim Jong Un, met with his South Korean counterpart, in what became a historic meeting.
He even vowed to denuclearize the Korean peninsula and dismantle his country’s underground nuclear test site, Punggye-ri, which he did.
However, as the agenda of Kim Jong Un’s meeting with Trump were being chalked out – North Korea expressed anger as South Korea and the U. S. continued their joint military training exercises on the Korean peninsula.
What added to North Korea’s fury was that some U. S. officials, including Trump’s new National Security Adviser John Bolton and the U. S. Vice President Mike Pence kept reiterating that if Pyongyang does not go along with talks to give up its nuclear weapons, Washington could return to the „Libya model.“
Amid the heated war of words between the two nations, Trump abruptly cancelled the much anticipated summit and within a few hours hinted that the summit might be on again.
Now, a day after the two Korean leaders held a surprise meeting – South Korea has declared that Kim Jong Un told its leader, Moon Jae In at the meeting that he remained committed to meeting with Trump.
The South Korean President’s office also announced that the North Korean leader reaffirmed his commitment to “complete” denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
Addressing a news conference in Seoul on Sunday, Moon Jae In said that Kim Jong Un had held a meeting with him to discuss that the North Korea-U. S. summit must be held successfully.
The South Korean President told reporters, “Chairman Kim and I have agreed that the June 12 summit should be held successfully, and that our quest for the Korean peninsula’s denuclearisation and a perpetual peace regime should not be halted.”
A statement from North Korea’s state news agency KCNA meanwhile said that Kim Jong Un had expressed “his fixed will” on the possibility of meeting Trump as previously planned.
Moon Jae In also acknowledged that Pyongyang and Washington may have differing expectations of what that means, and he urged both sides to hold working-level talks to resolve their differences.
In Washington meanwhile, Trump signaled that preparations for the summit with Kim were going ahead.
Trump also told reporters that he was still looking at a June 12 date for a summit in Singapore, adding that talks were progressing very well.
He said, “We’re doing very well in terms of the summit with North Korea. It’s moving along very nicely. So we’re looking at June 12th in Singapore. That hasn’t changed. So, we’ll see what happens.”
A White House spokesperson also confirmed on Saturday that a White House team will leave as scheduled for Singapore this weekend to prepare for the possible summit.
