ED Hope for new summit

Trump, Kim should make real breakthrough

President Moon Jae-in's summit diplomacy can be seen as successful after U.S. President Donald Trump expressed his desire to hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. During a meeting with Moon at the United Nations in New York, Monday, Trump said he expects another summit with Kim will be announced “pretty soon.”

Moon briefed Trump about the results of his third summit with Kim that took place in Pyongyang last week to help revive the stalled nuclear talks between the U.S. and the North. Moon explained Kim's promise to take additional steps toward denuclearization. Such steps include dismantling the Tongchang-ri missile engine test site and the Yongbyon nuclear complex on condition that the U.S. take “corresponding action.”

Kim did not explicitly mention what the “corresponding action” is. But he apparently means a formal declaration of the end of the Korean War, which ended in an armistice, not peace treaty, as well as the easing of U.N. sanctions. The North's call for the declaration has so far served as a deadlock to the negotiations with the U.S. since Trump and Kim agreed to the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula during their historic summit in Singapore in June.

To break the impasse, Washington and Pyongyang need to narrow their differences on how to denuclearize the North in return for security guarantees. But it is not easy to do so because the North wants to see the U.S. declare the end of the war before starting the denuclearization process. The Trump administration, however, is sticking to denuclearization first before giving any rewards, including the declaration.

It can be said that President Moon has played his role as a mediator to the best of his ability as he helped broker another summit between Trump and Kim. But, Trump has yet to accept the North's condition for “corresponding action.” This means that he is not confident about Kim's sincerity on his commitment to give up the North's nuclear and long-range missile development programs.

That's why Trump said Tuesday in a speech to the annual U.N. General Assembly that much work remains to be done, despite thanking Kim for his courage and for the steps he has taken. Trump also made clear that sanctions must remain in place on North Korea until it denuclearizes. This clearly shows his determination to apply pressure on the North while at the same time having dialogue with it.

Trump may feel pressed to produce tangible progress with the North's denuclearization before the November midterm elections in the U.S. But it would be better for him to be more careful to avoid the same mistake he made during the first summit with Kim. The key to success depends on how to prod the North to move toward final, fully-verified denuclearization.

For North Korea, it is necessary to present a list of its nuclear weapons and facilities, and fissile material. It must also allow outside inspections, possibly by experts from the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and verification before dismantling its nuclear program. We hope that Trump and Kim will make a real breakthrough in the denuclearization process when they meet for a second time.