Trump: ‘We just don’t want N. Korea’s nuclear testing’

U.S. President Donald Trump made a statement ahead of his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un scheduled in Hanoi, Vietnam on February 27 and 28. “I’m in no rush for speed. We just don’t want testing," he said.

President Trump made the remarks as he was mentioning the North’s halting of nuclear tests and missile launch as an achievement since his first summit with Kim in Singapore last year, at a press conference at the White House on Friday (local time). However, watchers have raised concern that Washington might have lowered its goal to freezing of its nuclear weapons from denuclearization, at a time when Washington and Pyongyang are engaged in intense tug of war at the working level over the agenda item of the North’s denuclearization for the summit.

The U.S. president then stressed that sanctions against Pyongyang are constantly maintained. “The sanctions, as you know, remain. Everything is remaining. China has been helping us, and Russia has been helping us. And South Korea, I think you can say, has been — we’ve been working very closely with South Korea, with Japan” he said. “We’re working on a summit… It will be in Vietnam — Hanoi. And I hope we have the same good luck as we had in the first summit. A lot was done in the first summit.”

“They (North Korea) have really taken advantage of the United States. Billions of dollars has been paid to them. And we won’t let that happen,” he added. “Their location between South Korea and then Russia and China — right smack in the middle — is phenomenal.”


lightee@donga.com