US: Shared definition of “denuclearization” remains summit goal

World Today

TRUMP AND KIM

U.S. officials laid out priorities for the upcoming summit between DPRK Chairman Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, and said the two-day summit will be similar in structure to the first summit between the leaders last year.

This includes private talks between the leaders, a shared meal, and group negotiations resulting in a joint statement.

According to two U.S. senior administration officials who briefed reporters Thursday, full denuclearization of the DPRK remains President Trump’s objective; however, negotiators have yet to develop a “shared definition of denuclearization.”

U.S. intelligence officials have said that despite suspending missile and nuclear tests, little else has changed in the Democratic People’s Republic nuclear weapons program.

“I don’t know if they have decided to denuclearize,” said one official. “But we are engaged because we believe it’s possible.“

Withdrawing U.S. troops from the peninsula is not an objective of these talks, say officials who pushed back against any suggestion that they are seeking a series of “incremental steps” from Pyongyang.

“We need to move in very big” steps, said one.