Trump wants 2nd summit with Kim to ensure progress on commitments: Bolton

WASHINGTON, Dec 5, 2018, Yonhap. U.S. President Donald Trump wants a second summit with Kim Jong-un to ensure the North Korean leader makes good on the promises he made at their first meeting in June, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said Tuesday, reported the Yonhap.

Trump said last weekend that he expects to meet Kim in January or February in one of three unspecified locations.

The remark came amid a deadlock in negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang over implementing the leaders’ June agreement to establish new relations and work toward “complete” denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

“They have not lived up to the commitments so far,” Bolton said at The Wall Street Journal’s annual CEO Council conference in Washington, according to CNN. “That’s why I think the president thinks that another summit is likely to be productive.”

North Korea has blown up a nuclear testing site and begun dismantling a missile engine facility in what it says are steps toward denuclearization. But the measures have fallen short of U.S. demands for final and fully verified denuclearization, while the North has stepped up its calls for sanctions relief.

Bolton said the U.S. will keep sanctions on the regime until there is progress, according to CNN.

“We’re going to pursue this,” he said. “If the North Koreans follow through on their commitments they made in Singapore, President Trump will deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Trump “opened the door for them,” Bolton said. “Now they have to walk through it. That’s what we hope to make progress on at the next meeting.”

At the first summit, Trump committed to provide security guarantees to the North in exchange for its denuclearization. He has also promised a brighter future for the North Korean people.

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