On Thursday, a meeting between President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in comes during a time of skepticism. It is undetermined whether or not the North Korean leader is going to back out of nuclear negotiations or restart missile and nuclear tests. This is the first time that Trump has met with President Moon after he was unsuccessful with Kim Jong Un during the Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Moon, who is attempting to make it possible to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, has been traveling in between Pyongyang and Washington in an effort to put an end to the nuclear standoff. President Moon has aggressively attempted to create a better relationship between South and North Korea, and he certainly doesn’t want to see the nuclear talks taken off its course.
During their meeting in late February, President Trump walked away from making a deal with Kim Jong Un. Trump explained that Kim was seeking sanctions relief, but he wasn’t willing to fully dismantle all of his nuclear weapons, which was a mandatory condition of the deal.
Experts in North Korea are debating about whether the harsh sanctions will put enough pressure on Kim to denuclearize or if they’ll only keep him from participating in negotiations. A senior administration official said on Thursday that the U.S. and the international community have “clearly defined the scope” of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, have a shared understanding of what final, fully verified denuclearization entails and what meaningful progress toward that goal looks like.
On Thursday, a senior administration official stated that the U.S. and the international community have “clearly defined the scope” of the weapons of mass destruction and missile programs in North Korea. They finally have a shared understanding of what it means to have a fully verified denuclearization and what it entails to make meaningful progress towards that goal. The official, who wanted to remain anonymous to discuss the sensitive topic, explained that North Korea’s position isn’t exactly an understanding one.
Kim’s current position could be seen in the North Korean capital on Thursday when he was expected to speak to his country’s Supreme People’s Assembly. The Supreme People’s Assembly is Korea’s version of a parliament that doesn’t have power. They’re expected to come together to formally approve Kim’s most recent economic policies. They could also show their support for a shift in U.S. strategy following the failed summit with Trump.
Last month, the deputy foreign minister of North Korea, Choe Son Hui, said that Kim would be making his position clear very soon. She explained that her country could possibly pull out of the nuclear negotiations with the United States, referring to a lack of equal measures of disarmament to the ones North Korea made last year.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, a meeting party was held on Wednesday, in which Kim emphasized that “self-reliance” in his country to “deal a telling blow to the hostile forces” that “go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring” North Korea “to its knees.”
President Trump is considering meeting with the North Korean leader again. According to the Associated Free Press, while Trump was speaking in the Oval Office, he said: “We will be discussing that and potential meetings, further meetings with North Korea and Kim Jong-un.”
Despite having a rocky history with the North Korean leader, Trump said: “I enjoy the summits, I enjoy being with the chairman.” He continued by saying that Kim is “a person I’ve gotten to know very well, and respect and hopefully, and I really believe over a period of time, a lot of tremendous things will happen. I think North Korea has tremendous potential.”
