President Donald Trump of the US
has told Kim Jong-Un, leader of North Korea, to abandon nuclear weapons and be
rewarded with ”protections” or risk being overthrown if the arsenal remains.
According to reports, Trump laid
out the choice for Kim ahead of their planned summit in Singapore, on June 12.
Trump maintained that the
scheduled meeting in Singapore was on track, in spite of North Korea’s threat
to cancel it, over concerns about the US push to see the complete
denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
North Korea had argued that it
needed its nuclear weapons to preserve its security, and also expressed
concerns about giving up on its nuclear weapon.
It cited the example of Muammar
Gaddafi, former Libyan president, who had given up his nuclear programme in the
2000s but died at the hands of rebel forces amid a popular uprising in October
2011.
John Bolton, national security
adviser, cited, ”the Libya model of 2003 to 2004” as a basis for North Korea
talks in May, which drew personal rebuke from the North Korean government on
Wednesday.
Trump, while addressing the North
Korean concerns , said if Kim agree to denuclearise, ”he will get protections
that would be very strong”.
However, he warned that failure
to make a deal could have grave consequences for Kim.
On Libya model, Trump said: ”That
model would take place if we don’t make a deal.”
”The Libyan model isn’t the model
we have at all. In Libya, we decimated that country. There was no deal to keep
Gaddafi,” he said.
He suggested China was
influencing North Korea’s thinking regarding the summit, pointing to Kim’s
visit to China immediately before Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state, visited
Pyongyang to finalise the summit date and location.
However, he said nothing has
changed with respect to North Korea after the warning from Pyongyang.
He added that North Korean
officials were discussing logistical details about the meeting with the US ”as
if nothing happened.”
In addition to threatening to
pull out of the meeting with Trump, North Korea abruptly cancelled a planned
meeting with South Korean officials over joint US-South Korean military
exercise.
Dana White, pentagon spokeswoman,
said the schedule of military exercises had not changed.
White said the annual exercises
were long-planned, defensive in nature and meant to ensure the readiness of US
and South Korean forces.
”Exercise Max Thunder,” which
began on Monday and ends on May 25, includes aircraft from across the US
military services.
The 2017 exercise included
roughly 1,200 US personnel and about 640 South Koreans, and the 2018 drill is
similar.
Trump, speaking at an Oval Office
meeting with Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary general, said he would not
discuss US troop levels in South Korea during his meeting with Kim.
North Korea had said it would not
return to talks with South Korea due to the exercises.
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