Maren Hennemuth and Andreas Landwehr -
For US President Donald Trump, the matter is clear-cut. He never tires of hailing his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a success: North Korea’s nuclear threat is over; there has been great progress.
But two months after their June 12 meeting in Singapore, the situation is by no means as positive as Trump portrays it.
The major breakthrough on the issue of dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear programme has so far failed to materialise. Progress in the disarmament efforts has been sluggish. The current atmosphere on the Korean Peninsula could turn for the worse, say observers.
Meanwhile, in the White House, not everyone is exuding as much optimism as Trump. His national security adviser, John Bolton, has accused Pyongyang of not having taken any concrete steps towards denuclearisation.
Washington is sticking to the summit deal, even though North Korea has not done anything, he charged. At their summit, Trump and Kim signed a declaration of intent in which the North Korean leader avowed his readiness for a “comprehensive” atomic disarmament.
But no specific steps were listed.
After the summit, the Trump administration cancelled planned joint military manoeuvres with South Korea, a major concession to the North.
Trump says the fact that North Korea has not fired any missiles for months now is a sign of success.
It’s a view the South Korean government also shares, with the presidential office saying in a report a few days ago, “this year North Korea has undertaken neither a nuclear test nor a missile launching.”
The report, coming as representatives of the two Koreas are to meet for further talks in Panmunjon, also said that the North had “undertaken the first steps to remove the risk of war on the Korean Peninsula at its roots by dismantling its nuclear testing and missile testing facilities.”
More recently, US experts, pointing to satellite surveillance photos, indicated that North Korea was dismantling important parts of its missile engine testing facility in Sohae.
But, on the other hand, the weeks since the Trump-Kim meeting have yet to produce a detailed timetable for nuclear disarmament.
North Korea appears to trust that Trump will regard its dismantling of the nuclear and missile testing facilities as serious steps towards “complete denuclearisation,” Scott Snyder, an expert on North Korea, said. — dpa
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