United States President Donald Trump intends to shift his focus to North Korea’s nuclear programme now that Washington has reached an agreement with Iran, South Korea’s president has said.
– Lee Jae Myung said in a news conference that Trump told him on Friday at a G7 dinner that “the time had come to pay attention to the North Korea issue,” a comment that could signal renewed US focus on Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities.
– Lee also told Trump that sanctions against North Korea were “ineffective”, pointing to deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
– “Even a small amount of assistance from Russia is of great help to North Korea,” Lee said.
– The two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, and are separated by a Demilitarized Zone through which the border runs. North Korea announced its first nuclear test in 2006 and is believed to have dozens of nuclear weapons.
– Kim has recently sought to enhance his standing with his allies, sending troops and munitions to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine.
– He also recently hosted China’s President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang, soon after Xi had held back-to-back summits in Beijing with Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
– Neither Pyongyang’s nor Beijing’s official statements mentioned the issue of North Korean denuclearisation – an outcome experts interpreted as tacit acceptance from China.
– Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state since a 2019 summit between Kim and Trump, in Hanoi, collapsed over the scope of denuclearisation and sanctions relief.
– Kim has pledged to expand North Korea’s nuclear capabilities as he unveiled a new facility for developing nuclear bomb fuels.
– Trump met Kim three times during his first term – once declaring they were “in love” – as he pushed to hammer out a long-coveted deal on denuclearisation. But no tangible progress has been made.
– Trump stepped up his courtship of Kim during a tour of Asia last year, saying he was “100 percent” open to a meeting. The offer has gone unanswered.
– The US president even bucked decades of US policy by stating North Korea was “sort of a nuclear power”.
– On Sunday, Trump posted an uncaptioned photo of himself and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un taken at a meeting in Singapore in 2018.