SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday the world will have a single overriding interest: How will they address North Korea’s decades-long pursuit of nuclear-armed missiles?
Success, even a small one, on the nuclear front could mean a prolonged detente and smooth the path for a planned summit between Kim and President Donald Trump in May or June. Optimists hope that the two summits might even result in a grand nuclear bargain.
North Korea’s announcement on Saturday to suspend further nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and close its nuclear test site raised hopes in Washington and Seoul for a breakthrough in the upcoming nuclear negotiations. However, the North’s statement stopped well-short of suggesting it has any intentions to give up its nukes or halt its production of missiles.
Failure to reach a nuclear agreement would raise serious questions about the sincerity of Kim’s recent outreach to Seoul and Washington and rekindle the fears of war that spread across the Korean Peninsula last year.
A look at the prospects of a North Korean disarmament deal ahead of the two impending summit talks:
Posted at 9:43 PM, Apr 22, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-22 21:43:26-04
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