A day after their historic summit, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un returned to their respective strongholds, but to far different receptions.
In Pyongyang, Kim woke up yesterday morning to state media’s enthusiastic claims of a victorious meeting with the US president; photographs of him standing side-by-side with Trump on the world stage were splashed across newspapers.
Meanwhile, Trump faced questions about whether he gave away too much in return for far too little when he bestowed a new legitimacy on Kim’s rule and agreed, at Pyongyang’s request, to end war games with Seoul.
Photo: AFP
As US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo jetted to South Korea for follow-up talks, much of Asia was still trying to process the whirlwind events of the day before.
There were worries, especially in Tokyo and Seoul, about Trump agreeing to halt US military exercises with South Korea.
That concession appeared to catch the Pentagon and officials in Seoul off guard, and some South Koreans were alarmed.
Pompeo yesterday left Singapore on his way to Seoul, where he planned to meet privately in the evening with General Vincent Brooks, commander of US Forces Korea, and is to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in this morning to discuss the summit.
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono is also heading to Seoul and is due to meet with Pompeo and his South Korean counterpart.
Pompeo then plans to fly to Beijing to update the Chinese government on the talks.
Trump on Twitter said that meeting meant “the World has taken a big step back from potential Nuclear catastrophe!”
“No more rocket launches, nuclear testing or research! The hostages are back home with their families. Thank you to Chairman Kim, our day together was historic!” he added.
Trump insisted that strong verification of denuclearization would be included in a final agreement, saying it was a detail his team would begin sorting out with the North Koreans next week.
The North yesterday suggested that Trump had moved away from his demand for complete denuclearization before US sanctions are removed.
The Korean Central News Agency said the leaders “shared recognition to the effect that it is important to abide by the principle of step-by-step and simultaneous action in achieving peace, stability and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
It also said that Trump had expressed his intention to lift sanctions “over a period of goodwill dialogue” and accepted an invitation from Kim to visit North Korea.
The White House declined to comment on the North Korean characterization of the deal.
In Japan, the prospect of canceled US-South Korean drills was met with concern.
“The US-South Korea joint exercises and US forces in South Korea play significant roles for the security in East Asia,” Japanese Minister of Defense Itsunori Onodera told reporters.
Japan wants to get further explanations from the US and South Korea on the issue, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, declining to comment further.
Additional reporting by AFP
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS