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2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit

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2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit
22 May 2018
U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un
Host countryEither Korea[1] or Singapore[2]
Venue(s)TBD
CitiesEither Panmunjom (Demilitarized Zone)[3][4] or Singapore[2]
ParticipantsKim Jong-un
Donald Trump

The 2018 North Korea–United States summit (Korean: 2018년 북미정상회담) is the proposed future meeting between the leaders of North Korea and the United States planned to take place on 22 May 2018.

The White House confirmed the planned meeting between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un on 8 March 2018. This would be the first time a sitting U.S. President will have met the leader of North Korea since the Korean War. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that "in the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain."[5] Kim referenced preparations for the meeting in remarks to the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea on April 9.[6][7]

Background

Korea has been divided since 1945. The Korean War of 1950-1953 ended with a ceasefire. A sporadic conflict has continued, with American troops remaining in the South. Since the 1990s, international concern has grown about North Korea's nuclear weapons program.[8]

Donald Trump was elected US President in 2016 with a position of opposition to Barack Obama's policy of "strategic patience" towards North Korea. While advocating a tough stance, he also expressed openness to dialogue, saying he would be prepared to "eat a hamburger" with Chairman Kim Jong-un. In return a North Korean-linked website described him as a "wise politician".[9]

In 2017 Moon Jae-in was elected President of South Korea with a promise to return to the Sunshine Policy of friendly relations with the North.[10] Throughout the year, North Korea successfully conducted tests of its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), named Hwasong-14.[11] In response to heightened North Korean rhetoric, President Trump warned that any North Korean attack "will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which the world has never seen before". In response, North Korea announced that it was considering a missile test in which the missiles would land near the US territory of Guam.[12][13] North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test, of a hydrogen bomb, on September 3.[14] The test was met with international condemnation and resulted in further economic sanctions being taken against North Korea.[15] On November 28, North Korea launched another missile, which, according to analysts, would be capable of reaching anywhere in the United States.[16] The test resulted in the United Nations placing further sanctions on the country.[17]

In his New Year address for 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un proposed sending a delegation to the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea.[18] The Seoul–Pyongyang hotline was reopened after almost two years.[19] North and South Korea marched together in the Olympics opening ceremony and fielded a united women's ice hockey team.[20] As well as the athletes, North Korea sent an unprecedented high-level delegation, headed by Kim Yo-jong, sister of Kim Jong-un, and President Kim Yong-nam, and including performers like the Samjiyon Orchestra.[21] The delegation passed on an invitation to President Moon to visit North Korea.[21]

Announcement

ROK President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump, November 2017

On March 5, 2018, South Korea's special delegation agreed to hold the third inter-Korean summit at Inter-Korean Peace House in Panmunjom on April 27, 2018.[22] On March 6, after returning to South Korea, the national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, and National Information Director Seo Hoon traveled to the United States on March 8 to report to President Trump about the upcoming inter-Korean summit, and relayed to Trump the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's invitation.[23] Trump endorsed the North Korea–United States summit about an hour after receiving the report. The South Korean National Security Adviser (SKNS), Mr. Jeong briefed the public that the North Korea–United States summit would be held sometime in May 2018.[24]

The White House announced that the UN Sanctions would remain in place until an agreement between the United States and North Korea is reached.[25] On March 6, Sarah Sanders said that the White House would need to see "concrete and verifiable steps" toward the denuclearization of North Korea before Trump would meet with Kim Jong-un. Later that day, an unidentified Trump official told The Wall Street Journal that Trump had still accepted Kim Jong-un's invitation.[26]

On March 12–13, 2018, the South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-yong visited China and met Chinese leader Xi Jinping inclusive of the foreign officials to report about the planned inter-Korean summit as well as the North Korea–United States summit and ask their advice and assistance. He is also planning to visit Russia on March 14, 2018, for explaining North Korea and the United States Visit Summary, seeking guidance for upcoming 2018 inter-Korean summit.[27] National Information Director Seo Hoon visited Japan and had a consultation with Prime Minister Shinzō Abe including the foreign officials about the denuclearization and Permanent Peace on the Korean Peninsula.[28][29]

On 8 April 2018, President Donald Trump said to reporters: "We’ll be meeting ... sometime in May or early June and I think there’ll be great respect paid by both parties and hopefully we’ll be able to make a deal on the de-nuking of North Korea."[30]

Post-announcement

Preparatory talks

On March 18, South Korea's foreign ministry announced that selected informal delegations from North Korea, South Korea, and the U.S. will meet for denuclearization discussions in April in Vantaa, Finland (This type of discussions, as held previously, had sometimes been referred to as track-2 talks.)[31] According to South Korea's Yonhap news, Choe Kang-il, a deputy director general for North American affairs at North Korea's foreign ministry, will attend the slated meeting, which Yonhap termed "track-1.5 talks."[32]

File:Xi Jinping October 2013 (cropped) (cropped).jpg
Xi Jinping
Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong-un's meeting with Xi Jinping

Main article: Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping's meeting

On March 25–28, 2018, North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un was in Beijing by special railway transport for talks with China's paramount leader Xi Jinping, his first known out-of-country excursion since taking power in six years.[33] China stated that North Korea was "committed to denuclearization" and willing to hold a summit with the United States.[34][35] It was organised by the invitation from Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping. During the meeting between two leaders, Kim Jong Un officially invited paramount leader Xi Jinping to the North Korean capital Pyongyang in his convenient schedule, and Xi accepted the invitation pleasedly.[36] Xi Jinping urged Kim Jong-un to strengthen its strategic and diplomatic future partnership between China and North Korea. Kim Jong-un stressed to Xi Jinping that North Korea and China are long communist countries and that there are many ways to cooperate in various aspects in the future.[37][38]

Announcement on KCNA about summit

According to North's state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-Un led a conference of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea’s political bureau. During the DPRK's political meeting on 9 April Monday, Kim announced that the circumstances surrounding the Korean Peninsula as well as the 2018 inter-Korean summit on 27 April and a planned summit in May with U.S. President Donald Trump.[39]

Preliminary talk between North Korea and United States

On April 11, in a recent North Korea-USA contact, North Korea presented the five entreaties on Trump-Kim summit talks as a condition for the dismissal of the North Korean ICBM nuclear weapons. (1) Ensuring the US and South Korea not locate nuclear weapons strategic assets within the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula[40] (2) Ceasing development or operation of nuclear strategic assets during USFK–ROK combined military training (3) Ensuring the USA will not attack North Korea with conventional weapon or nuclear weapons (4) Converting the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement into a peace treaty on Korean peninsula (5) Official Diplomatic ties between North Korea and the United States. Although, in general, North Korea had expected to request the withdrawal of United States Forces Korea (USFK) from South Korea in the past, North Korea publicized they would embrace the continuous deployment of 25,000 USFK in South Korea as long as the security of North Korea is guaranteed.[41]

2018 inter-Korean summit

Kim and President of South Korea Moon Jae-in shake hands in greeting, in an initiating gesture for the 2018 inter-Korean summit.
Main article: 2018 inter-Korean summit

At an inter-Korean summit on April 27, 2018, held at the Peace House in Panmunjom, the leaders of North and South Korea agreed to formally end the Korean War before the end of the year.[42]

Meeting location

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kim Jong-un meet in Pyongyang, North Korea on March 31, 2018

On April 30, Trump remarked on the possibility of the Peace House and inter-Korean House of Freedom (Joint Security Area) in Panmunjom as venues for the meeting.[43] Trump believes that Panmunjomin DMZ would be the reasonable location for the historical meeting to remove nuclear weapons and to sign the preparatory peace treaty on Korean peninsula.[44] On April 28, Trump administration sources said that the meeting could be held in Singapore or Mongolia.[45] The inter-Korean Peace House was where the 2018 inter-Korean summit was held earlier in April. Singapore was the site of a recent China–Taiwan summit. Mongolia has sponsored a number of talks in recent years involving regional and international players, and is accessible by train from North Korea.[46]

On March 31 and likely April 1, CIA director Mike Pompeo had secretly met with Kim in Pyongyang[47] to lay groundwork for the summit, including their discussing possible venues.[48] On April 17, on the day of a meeting at Mar-a-Lago of Trump with Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe, sources revealed to reporters the identities involved in the discussions in Pyongyang.[49]

American officials said the most likely mutually-agreed-upon choice of venue would be in Southeast Asia or Europe, especially from among the choices of Singapore, Vietnam (Communist country recognized by the U.S. since 1995), Thailand, Switzerland (where Kim and his two siblings had some schooling[50]), or Sweden (whose embassy acts as intermediary for Americans traveling in North Korea).[51] Another possible location of the summit would be Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.[52][53]

Additionally proposed venues included Pyongyang, North Korea (favored by Kim); the Inter-Korean Peace House in Panmunjom near the boundary of the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea (site for the April 27, 2018 inter-Korean summit; a site possibly favored by Kim for the summit with the U.S. as well);[54][55] the Russian port city of Vladivostok (accessible to Kim by land or sea and nearby Vyatskoye, Kim's predecessor and father Kim Jong-il's February 16, 1941 birthplace[56][57]);[58] a Chinese city such as Shenyang, Changchun, or Beijing (favored by China); Seoul or South Korea's Jeju Island; or, aboard a U.S. ship in international waters.[59][60]

Reactions to the proposed summit

  • Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping had a dialogue with President Donald Trump on March 11 about the 2018 North Korea–United States summit. China expressed its appreciation for attempts of resolving the North Korean nuclear issue through diplomacy through the North Korea–United States summit. The White House also believes that North Korea will keep its promise to suspend ICBM missile launches and North Korean nuclear tests before the North Korea–United States summit in May.[61]
  • Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, embraced the meeting saying "it is a step in the right direction" instead of "fire and fury". He also expressed that a legal arrangement between the U.S. and North Korea would be crucial for normalizing the perilous situation around the Korean Peninsula.[62]
  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her opinion about Trump-Kim talks; she views "gleams of hope" achieving the resolution of North's nuclear weapons. Merkel also remarked, “It would be marvellous if we could experience a detente.” [63]
  • Several lawmakers and foreign policy experts voiced concerns about the wisdom of agreeing to a summit with insufficient preparations by lower-level officials, mainly due to the lack of trust between the United States and North Korea. Some said Trump could be setting himself up for failure, due to doubts over whether North Korea will willingly give up a formidable atomic arsenal that Kim Jong-un has made central to North Korea's standing in the world.[64]
  • The South Korean government said that Pyongyang had not announced a confirmation about the US summit meeting. The South Korean government believes that the North American summit is so significant that it is taking prudent measures, and there have been cases where such delayed answers are made.[65]
  • British MEP Nirj Deva leaded European Parliament Delegation acknowledged that they had several secret meetings with the senior officials in North Korea for three years to resolve the ICBM missile and the nuclear bomb programme to intercept any inevitable conclusion to the world. Austrian MEP Paul Ruebig, deputy chair of the committee, suggested that the UN take part in the Trump-Kim summits to give them an international horizon.[66]
  • New National Security Advisor John R. Bolton states that the meeting should focus on denuclearization similar to Libya 13 or 14 years ago.[67] He stated if denuclearized, he would ship the nuclear weapons to Oak Ridge, Tennessee.[67] However, he also warned that if not prepared for serious discussion, the meeting could be short.[67]

See also

References

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    Sheets, Lawrence (12 February 2004). "A Visit to Kim Jong Il's Russian Birthplace". NPR. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
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