Trump announces second North Korea summit

International Desk: US President Donald Trump has announced in his State of the Union speech that he will hold a second nuclear summit with North Korea's leader this month.

In an address to the nation with the theme "Choosing Greatness", he vowed once again to build a border wall.

While appealing for political unity, the Republican president also said "ridiculous partisan investigations" could damage US prosperity.

In a rebuttal, Democrats accused Mr Trump of abandoning US values.

His primetime address came less than a fortnight after he backed down to end the longest US government shutdown in history when Democrats refused to fund a US-Mexico border wall.

Another shutdown could happen if no spending plan is agreed by the end of next week.

The president said in his 82-minute speech on Tuesday night that he would meet Kim Jong-un in Vietnam from 27-28 February.

"If I had not been elected president of the United States," Mr Trump said, "we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea.

"Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong-un is a good one."

Plans for a second summit have been in the works since the two leaders' historic talks last year.

Mr Trump and Mr Kim's meeting last June in Singapore was the first ever between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.

While Pyongyang has not conducted any atomic or ballistic missile tests since last summer, it has yet to agree to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme.

Mr Trump's goal will be to extract pledges from Kim Jong-un without giving too much ground. The Trump administration has said it is not willing to lift sanctions, but it has mentioned helping out the North's economy.

However, handing over such aid to a secretive state which has yet to declare a list of its weapons facilities or allow in independent inspectors is bound to raise more than eyebrows. So Mr Trump has to extract a written pledge from Mr Kim. Otherwise these summits will be seen as all show, and very little substance.

As for Mr Kim's bargaining chips, we have been told he could be prepared to give up his nuclear production site known as Yongbyon.

I've also been told by some sources close to Pyongyang that Mr Kim does want to achieve something his father and grandfather never did. A peace treaty.

The prospect of becoming the US president who ended the 68-year long Korean War is bound to be a tantalising one for Mr Trump.

Source: BBC


risingbd/Feb 6, 2019/Mukul