Trump Has a Big Bargaining Chip Up His Sleeve for Summit with Kim Jong Un
President Donald Trump could bring a big bargaining chip to his upcoming summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un: officially ending the Korean War, which the U.S. has technically been involved in since 1950.
Trump was the first U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader.
He and Kim held a one-on-one summit in Singapore in June.
Trump is scheduled to meet with Kim for a two-day summit in Vietnam to discuss denuclearization Feb. 27 and 28, Politico reported.
A peace treaty ending the war is “something [Kim] wants more than almost anything else,” The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Shifting the rhetoric of the summit from denuclearization talks to peace talks would be a “risky move” that Trump may have signaled in his Feb. 5 State of the Union Address, according to the AP.
He did not mention “denuclearization” but did call for a “historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula.”
Trump’s special representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun discussed his “assignment to oversee and lead the broad diplomatic initiative to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea” during a talk at Stanford University Jan. 31.
“In President Trump, the United States has a leader who, more so than any previous president, is deeply and personally committed to once and for all bringing an end to 70 years of war and hostility on the Korean Peninsula,” Biegun said.
If the two leaders achieve a peace treaty later in February, Kim would meet a goal that originated with his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the AP reported.
An agreement of that nature could bring sanctions relief to North Korea.
It could also reduce the number of U.S. troops south of the Demilitarized Zone between North Korea and South Korea.
North Korea said in December that it will not denuclearize until the U.S. removes its nuclear threat from the region first.
Trump was optimistic after his meeting with Kim in June, but the North Korean dictator has appeared to push ahead with plans for the development of his weapons programs.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
A version of this article appeared on The Daily Caller News Foundation website.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
