U.S. President Donald J. Trump and the leader of the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un met for a one day summit in Singapore on 12 June 2018.
There was little doubt that the world was willing to support this move.
The Guardian, 12-13 June 2018:
The UN secretary
general, António Guterres, has welcomed the summit as an important first step
and urged both sides to compromise.
A statement
issued by his office said: “The Secretary-General welcomes the holding
of the Summit between the leaders of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
and the United States as an important milestone in the advancement of
sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearization on the
Korean Peninsula.”
“As the
Secretary-General noted in letters to both leaders before the Summit, the road
ahead requires cooperation, compromise and a common cause. Implementing today’s
and previous agreements reached, in accordance with relevant Security Council
resolutions, will require patience and support from the global community.
The
Secretary-General urges all concerned parties to seize this momentous
opportunity and reiterates his readiness to fully support the ongoing process.”
When the summit ended this joint statement was released to the media on 12 June 2018:
Joint statement of
President Donald J. Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong
Un of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at the Singapore Summit
President Donald J.
Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State
Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) held a
first, historic summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018.
President Trump and
Chairman Kim Jong Un conducted a comprehensive, in-depth and sincere exchange
of opinions on the issues related to the establishment of new U.S. - DPRK
relations and the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean
Peninsula. President Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the
DPRK, and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to
complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Convinced that the
establishment of new U.S. - DPRK relations will contribute to the peace and
prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and of the world, and recognizing that
mutual confidence building can promote the denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula, President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un state the following:
The United States and the
DPRK commit to establish new U.S. - DPRK relations in accordance with the
desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.
The United States and
the DPRK will will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace
regime on the Korean Peninsula.
Reaffirming the April
27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The United States and
the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate
repatriation of those already identified.
Having acknowledged that
the U.S. - DPRK summit - the first in history - was an epochal event of great
significance in overcoming decades of tension and hostilities between the two
countries and for the opening up of a new future. President Trump and Chairman
Kim Jong Un commit to implement the stipulations in this joint statement
fully and expeditiously. The United States and the DPRK commit to hold
follow-on negotiations, led by U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and a relevant
high-level DPRK official, at the earliest possible date, to implement the
outcomes of the U.S. - DPRK summit.
President Donald J.
Trump of the United States of America and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State
Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have committed
to cooperate for the development of new U.S. - DPRK relations and for the
promotion of peace, prosperity, and security of the Korean Peninsula and of the
World.
Then journalists started to report on what Trump was actually saying, which raised doubts about his negotiating ability and whether he could stay on course.
At his post-summit press conference Trump keep stating that he ran out of time to lock-in detail and confirm any sort of timeline for undertakings in the statement.
He reverted to distortion of known fact when discussing denuclearisation, such as the destruction of the North Korean nuclear/missile test site by a rapid series of underground earthquakes:
“Because there’s no
time. I’m here one day. We’re together for many hours intensively. The process
will take place. I would be surprised, Mike, if they have not started already.
They have started. They blew up their sites. They blew up their testing site…”
Of Kim Jong-un Trump states; "He is very smart" and “He’s got a very good
personality, he’s funny, and he’s very, very smart….He’s a great negotiator,
and he’s a very strategic kind of a guy…I think at the right time, he’ll
absolutely be coming to the White House” as well as “I do trust him, yeah. …
He trusts me, I believe, I really do.”
A joint statement said Mr. Kim “reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” That language is actually weaker and less specific than what Pyongyang offered in several previous agreements — which it then flouted. North Korea’s definition of denuclearization, as laid out in numerous previous talks with U.S. officials, envisions a far-reaching U.S. strategic retreat, including the removal of the American defense umbrella from both South Korea and Japan. There was no mention in the statement of U.S. terms for disarmament: not a word about verification, or irreversibility, or timelines.
While Associated Press Pyongyang
bureau chief Eric Talmadge had this to say on 13 June 2018:
All North Korean leader
Kim Jong Un really needed from his unprecedented summit with U.S.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday was to keep his nuclear arsenal
intact for the time being and get a decent handshake photo to show he has truly
arrived on the world stage.
To probably even his own
surprise, he got that and a whole lot more.
While offering no solid
promises to abandon his hard-won nuclear arsenal any time soon, Kim got to
stand as an equal with the leader of the world’s most powerful nation, received
indications that the future of joint U.S.-South Korea military maneuvers may be
in doubt and was showered with effusive praise from a president who just last
year derided him as “little rocket man.”
If he was forced to
negotiate by U.S. pressure, it certainly wasn’t obvious. And if any skeptics of
the diplomatic campaign he launched with his neighbors early this year remain
inside his regime back home, the summit went a long way toward sidelining them
even further.
All of this from a
34-year-old leader who was widely written off as too young and too
inexperienced to last very long when he assumed power after his enigmatic
father, Kim Jong Il, died in late 2011....
On denuclearization, the
key issue of the summit, Kim appears to have held astonishingly firm. Or
perhaps he just wasn’t pushed very hard.
Though the leaders
mentioned in a joint statement the need for the complete denuclearization of
the Korean Peninsula, the wording is ominously vague and, it could be argued,
doesn’t go any further than the North’s previous promises. Whether Trump’s
claim that Kim is devoted to the process remains to be seen.
And, it’s safe to
assume, that is just fine with Kim.
He got other gifts from
Trump as well…..
Meanwhile the odd political meme popped up and cartoons began to appear poking fun at Trump's claims.