North Korea, U.S. hold preparatory meetings for Kim-Trump summit
- 6 years ago
It's not just the prep-team in Singapore that's working to make the Kim-Trump summit a reality.
Delegations from the two sides have been locked in talks for days on the northern side of the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom to possibly fine-tune details for a summit.
Lee Ji-won reports.
It's the third day of secretive meetings between the U.S. and North Korea on the northern side of Panmunjom.
The delegations are reportedly led by the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and former nuclear negotiator, Sung Kim,... and from North Korea, Choe Son-hui, the regime's vice foreign minister and a former director of her ministry's North American department.
Both are experts in their fields, so pundits expect that they'll discuss the agenda and details of the Pyongyang-Washington summit.
And on the topic of denuclearization, what should be the first step.
"We have a basic idea of what the end-point of Pyongyang's denuclearization would look like if a deal is reached. But we don't yet have a clear picture of the first steps for it. And that's vital for building trust. So the U.S. could ask the North to take actions that clearly show its determination, which would also need to be reciprocated."
In fact, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported Monday, citing U.S. officials,... that Washington is asking Pyongyang to first transfer the 20 nuclear warheads it is believed to have... to somewhere outside of its borders as soon as possible.
While that request could seem similar to the so-called "Libya model," Trump had said that he would not take that approach and instead focus on his "Trump model."
Trump last week had also, for the first time, hinted at the possibility of accepting a "phased-in" disarmament for North Korea.
And some experts say this new "Trump model" is what might be in discussion at Pamunjom.
"The North has protested strongly against having to give up its nukes first, which could have been one of the reasons it issued those aggressive statements two weeks ago. But with the two sides now sitting down to talk again, it's likely that the North accepted the U.S. request but also demanded, among other things, that it be done progressively."
Some experts also pointed at the possibility that the North could counter-propose to give up its inter-continental ballistic missile first,... which is the very own missile that is known to be able to drop the nuke on the U.S..
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.
Delegations from the two sides have been locked in talks for days on the northern side of the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom to possibly fine-tune details for a summit.
Lee Ji-won reports.
It's the third day of secretive meetings between the U.S. and North Korea on the northern side of Panmunjom.
The delegations are reportedly led by the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and former nuclear negotiator, Sung Kim,... and from North Korea, Choe Son-hui, the regime's vice foreign minister and a former director of her ministry's North American department.
Both are experts in their fields, so pundits expect that they'll discuss the agenda and details of the Pyongyang-Washington summit.
And on the topic of denuclearization, what should be the first step.
"We have a basic idea of what the end-point of Pyongyang's denuclearization would look like if a deal is reached. But we don't yet have a clear picture of the first steps for it. And that's vital for building trust. So the U.S. could ask the North to take actions that clearly show its determination, which would also need to be reciprocated."
In fact, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported Monday, citing U.S. officials,... that Washington is asking Pyongyang to first transfer the 20 nuclear warheads it is believed to have... to somewhere outside of its borders as soon as possible.
While that request could seem similar to the so-called "Libya model," Trump had said that he would not take that approach and instead focus on his "Trump model."
Trump last week had also, for the first time, hinted at the possibility of accepting a "phased-in" disarmament for North Korea.
And some experts say this new "Trump model" is what might be in discussion at Pamunjom.
"The North has protested strongly against having to give up its nukes first, which could have been one of the reasons it issued those aggressive statements two weeks ago. But with the two sides now sitting down to talk again, it's likely that the North accepted the U.S. request but also demanded, among other things, that it be done progressively."
Some experts also pointed at the possibility that the North could counter-propose to give up its inter-continental ballistic missile first,... which is the very own missile that is known to be able to drop the nuke on the U.S..
Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.