Speaker to the press after the summit between the two leaders, the US President expressed his hope that the North Korean denuclearization process would begin ‘’very quickly’’.
An unprecedented nearly-five hour summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un ended on Tuesday with huge announcements from both sides but little progress on the main issue of nuclear disarmament.
For the US President, the summit presents an accolade which he can show to his supporters back home to garner votes in the upcoming mid-term polls. For the North Korean leader, this summit presents a major victory as the US has now decided to stop war games with South Korea.
President Trump’s decision of stopping what he called ‘’war games’’ with South Korea is a major diplomatic victory for the North. Code-named Foal Eagle and Key Resolve, these war games involved 23,000 American and more than 300,000 South Korean troops in March this year.
Here are the main points of the signed document between President Trump & Kim Jong Un pic.twitter.com/m84ATl6tD0
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North Korea has always been dismissive of these war games, which it sees as a joint-attempt by the United States and South Korea to cower the belligerent North with an impressive show of their might. Hence, now that Trump has decided to stop them, a major pinching point in the relationship has been overcome.
Coming into the summit, the US had the specified aim of ‘’complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization’’. However, what the North Korean leader has pledged is exactly the same what he pledged to do in a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier this year.
For, while Kim Jong Un has ’’reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula’’, there were scant details on what steps North Korea would take to achieve that objective, though its leader assured the world that it ‘’will see a major change’’.
After a morning full of meetings and a working lunch, Trump and Kim made their way to the US and North Korean reporters without aides or translators.
“We had a really fantastic meeting. A lot of progress,” Trump said. “Really very positive. I think better than anybody could have expected. Top of the line. Really good.”
Both leaders then walked back to the hotel where Trump showed Kim the inside of his armor-plated limousine, known as ‘’the Beast’’. Afterward, they stopped at the hotel’s doors, before having a discussion with their respective staff and went off in different directions with their entourages.
