North Korea’s Kim Says Ready to Denuclearize
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Thursday he would not be in Vietnam meeting with US President Donald Trump if he was not prepared to pursue the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
“If I’m not willing to do that, I won’t be here right now,” Kim told reporters on Thursday through an interpreter, when asked if he was ready to give up his nuclear weapons, Reuters reported.
Trump, responding to that, said, “That might be the best answer you’ve ever heard.”
The two leaders were sitting across from each other at a conference table, with their aides.
Kim did not elaborate on what “denuclearization” would entail, but asked if he was ready to take concrete steps, Kim said they had just been talking about that.
“Hope you give us more time to talk. Even a minute is precious,” he told reporters.
Kim also said he would welcome the idea of putting a US liaison office in the North’s capital, Pyongyang.
While the United States is demanding North Korea give up all of its nuclear and missile programs, the North wants to see the removal of a US nuclear umbrella for its Asian allies such as South Korea and Japan.
The two leaders’ summit in Singapore in June, the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader, produced a vague statement in which Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
But there has been little progress since.
Trump and Kim have a series of meetings scheduled at the Metropole Hotel and will later hold a “joint agreement signing ceremony”, the White House said.
After, Trump plans a news conference at 3:50 p.m. (0850 GMT).
