Kim committed to summit with Trump: South Korea

Seoul, May 27

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said today North Korean leader Kim Jong Un committed in their surprise meeting to sitting down with President Donald Trump and to a “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”.

The Korean leaders’ second summit in a month saw bear hugs and broad smiles, but their quickly arranged meeting Saturday appears to highlight a sense of urgency on both sides of the world’s most heavily armed border.

At the White House, Trump said negotiations over a potential June 12 summit with Kim that he had earlier canceled were “going along very well”.  Trump told reporters that they are still considering Singapore as the venue for their talks. He said there is “a lot of good will”, and that denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula would be “a great thing”. 

The Koreas’ talks, which Moon said Kim requested, capped a whirlwind 24 hours of diplomatic back-and-forth. They allowed Moon to push for a US-North Korean summit that he sees as the best way to ease animosity that had some fearing a war last year. Kim may see the sit-down with Trump as necessary to easing pressure from crushing sanctions and to winning security assurances in a region surrounded by enemies.

Moon told reporters on Sunday that Kim “again made clear his commitment to a complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” and that he told the South Korean leader he’s willing to cooperate to end confrontation and work towards peace for the sake of the successful North Korea-US summit.

Kim, in a telling line from a dispatch issued by the North’s state-run news service on Sunday, “expressed his fixed will on the historic (North Korea)-US summit talks”. During Saturday’s inter-Korean summit, the Korean leaders agreed to “positively cooperate with each other as ever to improve (North Korea)-US relations and establish (a) mechanism for permanent peace.” 

They agreed to have their officials meet again June 1. Moon said military generals and Red Cross officials from the Koreas will also meet separately to discuss how to ease military tensions and resume reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

Saturday’s Korean summit came hours after South Korea expressed relief over revived talks for a Trump-Kim meeting. Despite repeated references to “denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula” by the North, it remains unclear whether Kim will ever agree to fully abandon his nuclear arsenal.

Moon has insisted Kim can be persuaded to abandon his nuclear facilities in exchange for credible security and economic guarantees.  — AP

The whirlwind diplomacy

• In a whirlwind 24 hours of diplomatic talks which South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Kim Jong Un requested, both leaders agreed to “positively cooperate” as ever to improve (North Korea)-US relations 

• During his summit with the North Korean leader, Moon said Kim was unclear whether his country could trust the US over its promise to end hostilities and provide a security guarantee if they do denuclearisation

• Moon assured him of President Donald Trump’s commitment to clearly put an end to hostile relations and help the North achieve economic prosperity, if North stayed on course and remained committed 

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