UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A year after Donald Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea in his first speech at the United Nations, the U.S. president will return to the podium in New York this week to tout diplomatic efforts that have reduced the risk of war.
But even if Trump’s rhetoric at the annual United Nations General Assembly is expected to differ sharply from his 2017 address in which he mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission,” some U.S. officials and analysts say Pyongyang has yet to take concrete measures to show it is prepared to give up a nuclear arsenal that threatens the United States.
The change of mood was sealed when Trump and Kim met for an unprecedented summit on June 12 in Singapore, and in the past week, the North Korean leader promised South Korean President Moon Jae-in to dismantle a missile site and also a nuclear complex – if the United States takes “corresponding action.”
While appearing to set a positive tone, the commitments fell far short of Washington’s demands for a complete inventory of North Korea’s weapons programs and irreversible steps towards denuclearization.
Trump is to meet Moon on Monday to get a first-hand account of the Korean summit before delivering his U.N. address on Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, meanwhile, has proposed a meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, and plans to chair a Security Council meeting on the denuclearization effort on Thursday.
Trump called last week’s joint declaration by Moon and Kim “very exciting” and has previously said he is willing to meet Kim a second time, in spite of a lack of obvious progress from their first meeting in Singapore.
One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the worry was Trump might offer Kim “too much too soon” to score a win ahead of the Nov. 6 congressional elections, which will decide whether Trump’s Republican Party maintains control of Congress.
Reuters
