Trump agreed to meet with the leader of North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un suggested that the US president hold a joint meeting. Donald Trump replied that he accepts this offer. Trump and Kim can meet in May, writes Air force.

Photo: Facebook / The White House

A verbal skirmish between Trump and Kim Jong-un last year and made the world, with bated breath, to wait for a new round of aggravation of the North Korean crisis. Therefore, a possible meeting of the two leaders has already been called an unprecedented event in the history of international relations.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the preparation of negotiations between Trump and Kim Jong-un will take some time.

The message to Trump from the DPRK leader was conveyed by high-ranking representatives of South Korea in Washington.

According to them, Kim Jong-un agreed to stop missile and nuclear tests, stating that he was committed to denuclearizing Korea.

These messages look like a powerful breakthrough against the background of previous months of mutual threats and belligerent statements.

Earlier this week, the South Korean delegation held unprecedented talks with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, which was another indication of the thawing of bilateral relations that began during the Winter Olympics in South Korea. After that, the negotiators from the South Korean side arrived in Washington to deliver the message.

According to expert on North Korean issues Ankita Panda, the announcement of Trump's upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un looked more than strange.

The statement was made only by South Korean high-ranking officials. None of the American delegation accompanied them. Panda believes that this created the impression that Washington is not really eager to meet with the leader of North Korea, and the entire initiative comes from South Korea.

Refrain from nuclear testing

"Kim has promised that North Korea will refrain from any new nuclear or missile tests," South Korea's national security adviser said during a news conference.

“President Trump was pleased to receive this information and announced that he would meet with Kim Jong Un by May with the goal of achieving permanent denuclearization,” he added.

China and Russia welcomed the decision to meet.

China called on the parties to show “political courage” to resume the process of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed hope that the meeting “will open the way to the resumption of a full-fledged political negotiation process to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.”

Photo: mid.ru

North Korea has been in international isolation for the last decades due to human rights violations, as well as attempts to acquire nuclear weapons and their means of delivery in violation of international law.

Until now, none of the current US presidents have ever participated in negotiations with any of the leaders of North Korea, so the upcoming meeting will mean a tremendous tectonic shift in the world of diplomacy.

Many note the role of the South Korean president and tread off to him, if the meeting takes place and brings results, the Nobel Peace Prize.

At the same time, the BBC correspondent in South Korea, Laura Biker, draws attention to the fact that Pyongyang has not yet declared its abandonment of its nuclear weapons, but only said that it was committed to this idea.

According to the BBC correspondent, for Kim Jong-un, this is a clear victory on the propaganda field, but Donald Trump will also feel like a winner, whose decisive policy allowed the parties to sit at the negotiating table.

In addition, the correspondent of the BBC emphasizes that it is not yet known what North Korea will ask in exchange for these negotiations.

For Kim Jong-un, nuclear weapons are a kind of guarantee of non-interference and a matter of survival, so it is still difficult to imagine that the North Korean leader will abandon the development of nuclear weapons, comments Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the magazine “Russia in Global Affairs”.

“For Kim Jong-un, the fundamental topic is status. North Korea's status is a de facto nuclear power, which means that nothing can be done with this country. For him, this is a kind of guarantee of non-interference. The status of a serious state with which they are having a serious conversation,” the expert believes.

The role of sanctions

Asian markets are well received news of the upcoming meeting of Trump and Kim Jong-un, which may have a positive impact on global stability.

This is great news for North Korea, whose economy is suffering losses due to the sanctions imposed against it.

Last year, the North Korean economy shrank by a third, with exports down 30% and, in the case of exports to China, down as much as 35%.

Kim Jong-un recognized the negative effect of the sanctions in his latest New Year's address. Ankit Panda, an expert on North Korean issues, believes that readiness for dialogue cannot be taken as a sign of North Korea’s weakness.

“The United States will have to pay a price for any negotiations on the issue of nuclear disarmament,” the expert is sure.

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