Trump-Kim summit: president says US 'will be stopping the war games' – live
|
Version 21 of 37. Downing Street has joined the chorus of cautious welcome to the summit from the international community. Theresa May’s spokesman said North Korea’s commitment to denuclearisation is a signal that Pyongyang has finally heeded the message, according to Reuters. Both the South Korean government and US forces in the region appear to have been taken by surprise by Trump’s declared suspension of joint military exercises. US forces in Korea said they had not received updated guidance on military exercises. “In coordination with our ROK [Republic of Korea] partners, we will continue with our current military posture until we receive updated guidance,” a spokesperson told Reuters The South Korean military issued a statement to NBC News saying: “Regarding President Trump’s comment regarding ending of the combined military drills … we need to find out the exact meaning or intention behind his comments at this point.” Military officials from both countries, including the US defence secretary, James Mattis, had vigorously opposed curtailing joint military exercises, on the grounds that doing so would undermine both the alliance and its deterrent against North Korean aggression. Donald Trump has agreed to suspend military exercises with South Korea in return for a commitment to denuclearisation from Kim Jong-un, the US president announced after his summit with the North Korean leader in Singapore. Trump said the war games were expensive and “very provocative”. Stopping them represents a major concession, something the US has previously rejected as non-negotiable on the grounds that the exercises are a key element of its military alliance with Seoul, and of maintaining a deterrent against North Korea. Trump said that, in return, Kim had agreed in a joint statement to reassert “his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”. Denuclearisation is the longstanding policy of the Pyongyang regime, but it interprets this as being an open-ended, gradual process in which other nuclear powers will also disarm. Missing from the joint statement was the definition, promoted up until now by the Trump administration, of “complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement”. Asked at a press conference why those terms were missing, Trump said: “There was no time. I am here one day.” John Everard, the UK’s former ambassador to North Korea, says Kim Jong-un has emerged as the big winner from the summit, citing Trump’s commitment to end war games. Kim will hail the summit as a “great triumph”, Everard told Sky News. He said: He will claim that he, his genius, his diplomatic nous have brought the president of the United States to the negotiating table. He will say, rightly enough, that he has been the first member of the dynasty to actually sit with a US president and be treated as an equal. This guy is on a roll. Kim Jong-un has scored a major major coup in this summit. All that he needed from it was the photo images, to be seen to be treated as an equal by the President of the United States. The rest was secondary. The declaration suggests he didn’t get that much out of the summit. It was only later, during President Trump’s press conference that we learned almost casually that the US is now going to suspend the joint military exercises with South Korea, to which the North Koreans have so long objected. So another big win by Kim Jong-un. From the US point of view, Everard dismissed the agreement as “rather flimsy”. He said: “All we have is President Trump’s word that Kim Jong-un is serious and a rather flimsy joint statement signed by the two people that doesn’t really tell us anything very much.” He pointed out that the commitment to denuclearisation had already been agreed in April. “Not only was it announced at the inter-Korean summit. It has been standard North Korean doctrine for many years. But notice the phrasing, it talks about ‘denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula’ not just of denuclearisation just of North Korea. In the North Korean mind that means that not just North Korea surrenders its nuclear weapons, but also that the possibility of a nuclear strike against North Korea by other countries, notably the United States, is also removed. So the United States will have to take some fairly stringent measures to limit its ability to hit North Korea. I’m not sure just how far Donald Trump has realised what he has signed.” Trump is reported to have left Singapore earlier than scheduled. Trump has left Singapore It has just gone 6.30pm in Singapore. On Monday the White House said Trump was expected to leave at around 8pm. White House announces Trump and Kim will have a bilateral meeting and working lunch tomorrow after their one-on-one tomorrow. Then Trump will have a press conference and depart Singapore at 8 p.m. No second day of meetings. pic.twitter.com/CwkJO30x86 Here’s a clip of Kim comparing the summit to a science fiction movie. And here’s Trump’s “handsome and thin” quip that fell a little flat with Kim. Here’s video of that press conference starting with that extraordinary video that Trump insists won’t be used for propaganda purposes by Kim. “Out of the darkness can come the light,” the breathy voiceover says. “Two men, two leaders, one destiny” it goes on. The London Evening Standard, edited by the UK’s former chancellor George Osborne, has a sarcastic front page take on the summit. “At last ... a leader I can do business with,” reads the headline in a reference to Trump’s apparent success in Singapore compared with the acrimony at the G7 summit in Quebec. Today’s @EveningStandard as Trump meet Kim pic.twitter.com/lXSgEV5Bgc Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, praised the agreement’s references to denuclearisation and said he was willing to engage with North Korea to resolve the cold war abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korean spies. “I’m determined that Japan will have to directly face North Korea and resolve (the abductions) bilaterally,” Abe told reporters. Trump said he had raised the abductions with Kim, adding that the North Koreans “are going to be working on that”. He said: “I brought it up absolutely and they are going to be working on that. We didn’t put it down in the document but it will be worked out.” The lack of specifics will disappoint the families of the abduction victims, who were seized during the 1970s and 80s to teach their language and culture to North Korean agents. Pyongyang has recently claimed that the issue had been settled. Japan has made the return of any surviving abductees, or securing verifiable accounts of their fates, as a precondition for resuming diplomatic ties and providing economic assistance to North Korea. Five of the 17 people Tokyo officially lists as having been abducted returned to Japan with their families in 2002. North Korea insists that eight others died and that the remaining four never entered the country. South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in has now issued a more positive assessment of the summit as “historic”. In a statement he warns there may be “many difficulties ahead, but we will never go back to the past again”. Moon says Kim will be “remembered as a leader who made a historic moment by taking the first bold step toward the world”. He added: “Building upon the agreement reached today, we will take a new path going forward. Leaving dark days of war and conflict behind, we will write a new chapter of peace and cooperation.” I offer my heartfelt congratulations and welcome the success of the historic North Korea-United States summit. This is just a beginning and there may be many difficulties ahead, but we will never go back to the past again and never give up on this bold journey. pic.twitter.com/6VhFO19JJ3 For all Trump’s rhetoric the international reaction to the summit so far has been cautious. South Korea’s presidential office is assessing the meaning of Trump’s remarks. South Korean Blue House spox: “At this moment, the meaning and intention of President Trump's remarks requires more clear understanding.” Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, welcomed the joint statement as a first step in the denuclearisation of North Korea. “We see this as a step in a comprehensive resolution,” Abe said in Tokyo. Abe added that he “would like to thank the president (Trump) for raising the abduction issue,” referring to Japan’s demand that Pyongyang release any remaining Japanese people it abducted to train its spies. Denmark said the summit was a diplomatic breakthrough, but that “history shows we must be vigilant”. The office of the Danish prime minister said: “North Korea has previously agreed to disarmament and not kept its word.” STM om mødet mellem USA og Nordkorea: "Mødet mellem den amerikanske præsident og Nordkoreas leder er et diplomatisk gennembrud. Men samtidig viser historien, at vi må være påpasselige. Nordkorea har tidligere indvilget i afrustning og ikke holdt ord." #dkpol #SingaporeSummit pic.twitter.com/Vwf0xSOkFr Trump’s press conference lasted well over an hour. Here’s a summary of the key points: Trump hailed his summit with Kim Jong-un as a “very important event in world history”, claiming Kim has given his “unwavering” commitment to denuclearisation. He claimed denuclearisation of North Korea’s “very substantial” nuclear arsenal could be achieved very quickly but gave few details or a specific timeframe. Denuclearisation “takes a long time scientifically”, Trump said. International observers will be deployed to verify North Korea’s denuclearisation, Trump insisted despite the lack of a commitment to this in the agreement the two leaders signed. Trump said he looked forward to lifting sanctions once “nukes are no longer a factor”. Trump agreed to stop US-South Korea war games. He said they were provocative, inappropriate and very expensive. North Korea has already demonstrated its commitment to denuclearisation by destroying a missile engine site, Trump claimed. He also repeatedly praised North Korea’s participation in the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Kim was praised for ushering in a “glorious new era of prosperity for his people”. Trump said he trusted Kim, got on with him, and said he was a “very talented” negotiator, but denied that he saw Kim as his equal. He claimed that a US video of the summit would not be used by Kim for propaganda purposes. Kim will be invited the White House at the appropriate time, Trump said. The president also agreed to travel to Pyongyang at an appropriate time. North Korea’s human rights record was discussed at length during the talks, Trump claimed. He said the 100,000 people in North Korean gulags would be among the big winners from the summit. Trump ends the press conference by saying the summit has been a very important event in world history. “But I want to get it completed, because if we don’t get the ball over the goal line, it doesn’t mean enough,” he says. Trump says he now needs a rest but will get back to work soon. China is a great country, with a great leader, Trump says. He may be calling President Xi before he lands back in the US, Trump says. Asked about South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, Trump says: “He’s a very, very fine gentleman, also a friend of mine. He’ll be very happy. I’ve already sent word to him about what happened.” |