United States President Donald Trump and North Korea Leader Kim Jong Un yesterday signed an agreement after talks in Singapore which marked the first time a sitting U.S. president had met a North Korean leader.
The two leaders, who in 2017 exchanged threats of war with one another – agreed to the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula” in a joint agreement, with the U.S. promising to provide “security guarantees” to North Korea in return.
A joint statement signed at the end of the summit, gave few details on how either goal would be achieved but Trump fleshed out some details at a news conference.
“President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the DPRK and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” they said.
Trump said he expected the denuclearisation process to start “very, very quickly”. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean officials would hold follow-up negotiations “at the earliest possible date”, the statement said.
Trump told the news conference that the process would be verified, and that the verification “will involve having a lot of people in North Korea”.
He also said Kim had told him North Korea was destroying a major engine-testing site used for missiles, but maintained international sanctions on Pyongyang would stay in place for now.
Trump said joint military exercises with South Korea would be halted. He said the move would save Washington a tremendous amount of money and would not be revived “unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should”.
“Some things were agreed and not reflected in the agreement,” Trump said.
Kim earlier said the two leaders had a historic meeting “and decided to leave the past behind. The world will see a major change.”
However, several political analysts said the summit had yielded symbolic, rather than tangible, results.
“It is unclear if further negotiations will lead to the end goal of denuclearisation,” said Anthony Ruggiero, senior fellow of Washington’s Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. “This looks like a restatement of where we left negotiations more than 10 years ago and not a major step forward.”
The document made no mention of the sanctions and nor was there any reference to finally signing a peace treaty. North Korea and the United States were on opposite sides in the 1950 to 1853 Korean War and are technically still combatants, as the conflict, in which millions of people died, was concluded only with a truce.
But the joint statement did say the two sides had agreed to recover the remains of prisoners of war and those missing in action so that they could be repatriated.
China, the third party to the truce, said it hoped North Korea and the United States could reach a basic consensus on denuclearisation.
“At the same time, there needs to be a peace mechanism for the peninsula to resolve North Korea’s reasonable security concerns,” China’s top diplomat, state councillor Wang Yi, told reporters in Beijing.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister said the Kremlin had a positive assessment of the summit but “the devil is in the details”, the Tass news agency reported.
If the summit does lead to a lasting detente, it could fundamentally change the security landscape of Northeast Asia, just as former U.S. President Richard Nixon visit to China in 1972 led to the transformation of China.
But Li Nan, senior researcher at Pangoal, a Beijing-based Chinese public policy think tank, said the meeting had only symbolic significance.
“There is no concrete detail on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and the provision of security guarantees by the United States,” Li said. “It is too early to call it a turning point in North Korea-U.S. relations.”
The dollar however jumped to a three-week top and Asian shares rose on news of the agreement.
Trump said he had formed a “very special bond” with Kim and that the relationship with North Korea would be very different in the future.
“People are going to be very impressed and people are going to be very happy and we are going to take care of a very dangerous problem for the world,” Trump said.
He called Kim “very smart” and a “very worthy, very hard negotiator.”
“I learned he’s a very talented man. I also learned that he loves his country very much.”
During a post-lunch stroll through the gardens of the Singapore hotel where the summit was held, Trump said the meeting had gone “better than anybody could have expected”.
Kim stood silently alongside, but the North Korean leader had earlier described their summit as a “a good prelude to peace”.
Both men walked to Trump’s bullet-proof limousine, nicknamed “The Beast”, and looked in at the rear seat, with Trump apparently showing Kim something inside.
They then resumed their walk.
They had appeared cautious and serious when they first arrived for the summit at the Capella hotel on Singapore’s Sentosa, a resort island with luxury hotels, a casino, manmade beaches and a Universal Studios theme park.
The Federal Government yesterday commended United States and North Korea for yesterday’s historic agreement.
In a statement yesterday, the government said Nigeria was optimistic that the two nations would uphold the commitments made during the landmark Summit.
Spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr. Tope Adeleye Elias-Fatile, said “The Federal Government of Nigeria congratulates Chairman Kim Jong Un of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and President Donald Trump of the United States of America on the historic achievement made at the “Kim and Trump Summit,” held earlier today, Tuesday 12th June, 2018, in Singapore, leading to the joint signing of a Statement by the two leaders; emphasising the establishment of new relationship; building an enduring peace and stability; the denuclearisation efforts in the Korean Peninsula; as well as recovery and repatriation of Prisoners of War (POW)/Missing in Action (MIA).
“The success of the historic Summit is a demonstration of commitment by the relevant parties towards de-escalation of tension in the Korean Peninsula and a consolidation of the earlier achievement made during the Inter-Korean Summit of 27th April, 2018, resulting in the Panmunjom Declaration between the leaders of the Koreas.
“Nigeria commends the bold step taken by the DPRK to dismantle the nuclear launch site as an indication of the determination to this peace process. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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