On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said he was looking forward to his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to talk about the country’s nuclear weapons program. Trump wants the “complete and verifiable and irreversible” abandonment of its nuclear weapons program. “We’ve never been in a position like this with that regime, and I hope to have a very successful meeting,” he said, during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Florida.
Although, he did tell Mark Landler of The New York Times that “If we don’t think it’s going to be successful, Mark, we won’t have it. If I think that it’s a meeting that’s not going to be fruitful. I won’t go. If the meeting when I’m there is not fruitful, I will respectfully leave”. He added, “maximum pressure” of tough economic sanctions would continue until North Korea “denuclearizes”. The Japanese Prime Minister was in agreement with the statement and said “Just because North Korea is responding to dialogue, there should be no reward. Maximum pressure should be maintained”. The meeting is scheduled for some time in June. It would be the first of its kind after 60 years of conflict with North Korea since the Korean War.
Another issue looming over the summit is the fate of the three detained Americans in North Korea. Trump has said there was a “good chance” of obtaining their release but did not confirm if it was a precondition for the meeting. Prime Minister Abe also pressed for the release of about a dozen Japanese citizens held by North Korea.
And, an astonishing and hopeful development is a summit to be held next week by the North Korean Leader with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to embark on a formal peace treaty to end the war between the two sides.
