A top South Korean diplomat pushed back Monday against critics of the summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, asserting that the top-down approach is unprecedented and those asking “where’s the beef” should realize that the joint statement in Singapore is just “the bone on which flesh should be added.”
“Consider the Singapore statement as the structural foundation of a house. It is our job to turn it into a complete house,” said Lim Sung-nam, South Korean first vice minister of foreign affairs, who predicted that the next major development would be a request from U.S. officials for Pyongyang to declare all of its nuclear programs and facilities.
Mr. Lim made comments at a public event in Washington as anticipation mounted for an announcement on when and where U.S. and North Korean officials may hold their first serious follow-up meeting to last week’s summit in Singapore.
Mr. Trump has said he wants quick action after the achievement of a four-point joint statement at the summit committing to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the pursuit of improved relations between Washington and Pyongyang — potentially toward the lifting of U.S. sanctions on North Korea.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told reporters he does not know “exactly what the timing will be for our next conversation with North Korea,” but he has suggested an announcement may be imminent. He told an audience in Detroit on Monday that he will be “hard at it in the days and weeks ahead.”
“We still have to flesh out all the things that underlay the commitments that were made that day in Singapore,” Mr. Pompeo said. “I was there in the room with Chairman Kim. It was the third time I’d met Chairman Kim: twice in Pyongyang and there in Singapore now. He has made very clear his commitment to fully denuclearize his country. That’s everything. … Not just the weapon systems, it’s everything.”
But skepticism over when and how such rhetoric will lead to measurable results is swirling amid concern that North Korea, known as “DPRK,” and its closest economic allies, China and Russia, came away the big winners last week.
Mr. Trump’s freeze on U.S.-South Korean military drills, as well as his expression of hope for a return of American forces from the region were watched closely by Moscow and Beijing, both of which bristled for decades over the post-World War II U.S. military presence in Northeast Asia.
Away from the drills freeze, there are concerns that Chinese and Russian officials could seize on Mr. Trump’s tweet after meeting Mr. Kim that “there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea” as justification to reduce their support for U.S.-led sanctions against Pyongyang.
Critics have also harped about the absence of specific details in the joint statement signed in Singapore. Many argue that the summit legitimized the young dictator of a nation on America’s list of state sponsors of terrorism and widely accused of human rights abuses, merely in exchange for a broad statement that did not have in it the words “verifiable” and “irreversible.”
Key Republican lawmakers have also expressed wariness, especially toward Mr. Trump’s outspoken confidence in Mr. Kim, given that the North Korean leader’s father, Kim Jong-il, committed explicitly back in 2005 to “abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs,” only to later renege on the promise.
Mr. Pompeo has defended the Singapore joint statement, in which Mr. Kim did express an “unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
The secretary of state, in his Detroit speech, also expressed confidence that Moscow and Beijing will continue to stand with Washington in upholding sanctions against Pyongyang. “Both Russia and China are fully on board with our effort,” he said.
Some lawmakers say the administration should be cautious and that the moment has come to hammer a message that sanctions will remain in place — and may even be increased — for as long as necessary to ensure denuclearization.
“We should strengthen our sanctions regime,” Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, the Republican chairman of the key Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Asia, said Monday.
“The administration should make clear to all that the only way we will dismantle the U.S. and international sanctions regimes is when Pyongyang completely — completely — dismantles every single nut and bolt of its illicit weapons programs and not a minute earlier,” Mr. Gardner said at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Such efforts will not only reaffirm to Kim Jong-un but also Beijing and Moscow that cosmetic concessions will not be enough to dismantle our sanctions regime,” the senator said.
But the big question lingers: Will Beijing and Moscow work with Washington for as long as it takes?
Mr. Pompeo told reporters last week that he is hopeful Pyongyang will show clear evidence of a major disarmament before Mr. Trump’s term in office ends in January 2021.
Mr. Lim suggested Monday that such hopes may be too ambitious, given the potential scope of North Korea’s nuclear operations and the complexity of legitimately verifying their dismantlement. Nailing down a specific timeline “for all those steps to be taken by the DPRK and the United States could be a tricky job,” he said.
But the South Korean diplomat otherwise echoed Mr. Pompeo’s defense of the Singapore summit. While he acknowledged the devil may be in the details, he said the joint statement signed by Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim set a “clear destination” of denuclearization for two nations to pursue after decades of hostility.
The hostility reached fresh heights a year ago amid threats from Pyongyang that war with Washington may be imminent and American intelligence concerns that the Kim regime had developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. homeland.
“Just last year, we were talking about the sheer number of ballistic missile launches the DPRK conducted and whether they were going to conduct yet another nuclear test,” said Mr. Lim, who spoke at the same CSIS event where Mr. Gardiner appeared. “We are now discussing how to proceed with dialogue. This, in my view, is certainly a welcome and positive change.”
Mr. Lim said the joint statements signed at the Trump-Kim Singapore summit and at a summit in April between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Mr. Kim may be more significant than anything achieved during years of multinational negotiations with Pyongyang.
The past negotiations, known as the “six-party talks” because they included representatives from the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and North Korea, ultimately fell apart in 2009.
“Unlike the six-party talks, where working-level officials agreed upon the final outcome, it was the presidents of [South Korea] and the United States and Chairman Kim Jong-un of the DPRK who signed these documents” this time around, said Mr. Lim.
“The political commitments contained within these two documents could not be stronger,” he said. “The unprecedented top-down approach culminating in the adoption of these two important documents should be duly noted.”
⦁ S.A. Miller contributed to this report.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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