Trump calls North Korea a nuclear power in apparent bid to hold a surprise summit
US President Donald Trump said, "I think North Korea is sort of a nuclear power."
This was his reply to a question from reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Asia, asking whether he was open to North Korea’s demand to be recognized as a nuclear state as a precondition for dialogue with the US.
He also said that the North has a lot of nuclear weapons.
His remarks give the impression that he effectively recognizes North Korea's nuclear weapons.
Trump told reporters that he is open to meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un at the Demilitarized Zone while he is in South Korea during his trip to Asia.
His mention of nuclear power status is seen as a strategic move to draw North Korea into dialogue.
Seoul and Washington have said Trump's tour schedule does not include such a meeting yet, but the possibility of a sudden meeting between Trump and Kim cannot be completely excluded.
In June 2019, during his first term, Trump made an abrupt proposal via Twitter to meet with Kim, and 32 hours later, their historic summit was held at the truce village of Panmunjeom.
For the South Korean people, living under North Korea's direct nuclear threat, the US president's latest remarks are difficult to shrug off. Furthermore, it was not the first time he referred to North Korea as a nuclear power.
On Jan. 20, the day of his inauguration, Trump called the North a nuclear power. In March, he again spoke as if the regime were a de facto nuclear state like India and Pakistan.
In September, Kim demanded Washington give up on the goal of denuclearizing his country as a precondition for US-North Korea dialogue. Trump's latest remarks could be accepted by Pyongyang as a positive response to the demand. If a second summit at Panmunjeom is realized, North Korea will likely play it up as an event recognizing it as a nuclear-armed state.
Being recognized as a nuclear state is what Pyongyang has persistently demanded. That goes against the existing stance of South Korea and the US in responding to North Korea’s nuclear threats. Their official policy is to denuclearize it.
Trump's remarks sound more like an inducement for a surprise summit with Kim, but an impromptu meeting is feared to sideline South Korea from discussing Korean Peninsula issues.
If this situation occurs, it would be difficult to exclude the possibility of Washington easing sanctions against the North in exchange for reducing and freezing its nuclear arms instead of scrapping them all.
Even if North Korea's nuclear arsenal is reduced, atomic bombs that can burn South Korean cities to ashes remain in its hands. Through bilateral talks, Pyongyang will likely seek a deal with Washington to indefinitely suspend South Korea-US joint military drills, a perennial North Korean demand.
Yet the Lee Jae Myung government, seeking to reopen inter-Korean talks, appears to tolerate direct deals between Trump and Kim — possibly excluding South Korea — and Pyongyang’s possession of nuclear weapons.
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said that a Trump-Kim summit would be "a God-given opportunity" for peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Lee has suggested a three-stage solution to North Korea’s nuclear threats, going from freeze to reduction to denuclearization. But the nature of negotiations with the North would differ greatly depending on whether they are held with its nuclear weapons recognized or not. Once the US recognizes the North's nuclear weapons, its complete denuclearization will actually become impossible.
South Korea is not just an observer of North Korean nuclear issues, but the direct target of its potential nuclear attacks. Dialogue between the US and North Korea should be a turning point to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and start a process of freeing Korea from nuclear threats.
The principle of denuclearization must not be negotiated but maintained no matter what.
khnews@heraldcorp.com
