U. S. and North Korean negotiators are discussing a possible deal at the Feb 27-28 summit that would include a declaration formally ending the Korean war in return for verifiable steps to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. But many of the most contentious issues are still unresolved.
Negotiators for President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are discussing a possible deal for their upcoming summit that would include a declaration ending the Korean war in return for verifiable steps to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear program, according to current and former U. S. officials.
But those and other contentious issues remain unresolved two weeks before Trump and Kim are scheduled to meet on Feb. 27-28 in Hanoi, Vietnam, the officials said.
Among the crucial sticking points: whether the United States would ease international sanctions before or after North Korea takes confirmed steps to curb its development and production of nuclear weapons.
The two leaders committed to denuclearization of the Korean peninsula when they first met last June 12 in Singapore, but they did not set up any step-by-step disarmament schedule for how to achieve that goal.
The uncertainty is raising concerns both in and out of the administration that Trump, in his second attempt to reach a historic diplomatic breakthrough with Kim, will agree to a headline-grabbing peace declaration and offer other U. S. concessions without locking in significant commitments from Pyongyang.
“We’re not there yet,” said a senior U. S. official familiar with the working-level talks aimed at hammering out as much of an agreement as possible before the Trump-Kim summit. “The denuclearization piece is obviously the hard part.”
Trump could view a nonbinding peace declaration for the 1950-53 Korean War as a signature diplomatic achievement, one he might grasp at even if it did not include ironclad requirements by North Korea to scale back its weapons programs.
“What I fear is that President Trump might be using a peace declaration as a way to bake in success for the Vietnam summit with a dramatic announcement for the end of a 70-year war,” said Jung Pak, who served as deputy national intelligence officer at the CIA until early in Trump’s term.
Joel Wit, a former U. S. diplomat who helped reach and implement a 1994 agreement with North Korea, believes a declaration is “close to a done deal,” calling it a first step in a “fairly long road toward” closer economic and diplomatic ties and other confidence-building steps that could end the nuclear threat.
The peace declaration under discussion would be a political statement rather than a legally binding peace treaty. A treaty would require approval by all the signatories to the armistice that ended the three-year conflict and might need to be ratified by Congress and the U. N. Security Council.
Analysts say Kim is likely to demand more from Trump than a peace declaration and will pressure him to ease sanctions unilaterally or scale back the 28,500 U. S. troops in South Korea.
