South Korean official says ‘package deal’ likely in U.S.-North Korea summit

The gap between North Korea and the U.S. on denuclearization remains “huge” as the two sides prepare for a summit, South Korea’s unification minister said Wednesday.

Despite those differences, unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon told European Union ambassadors in Seoul that he believes President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will reach a deal.

“The difference of the position between the North and the U.S. in the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is still huge,” Mr. Cho said in a statement carried by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. “It won’t be easy to narrow this gap and coordinate with each other, but our judgment is that it’s not impossible. Our assessment is that they will reach a compromise.”

He said that compromise, in Seoul’s view, should be “a package deal on the North’s denuclearization and guarantees of regime security.”

Mr. Trump has previously tried to assure Mr. Kim in public comments that the U.S. will guarantee his safety as part of any agreement in which Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

A top North Korean official, vice chairman Kim Yong-chol, is arriving in the U.S. this week for talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as both sides keep working toward an expected summit in Singapore next month. Mr. Trump canceled the June 12 summit last week, but since then there has been a flurry of negotiations involving Washington, Pyongyang and Seoul.