Washington D.C. [USA]: United States President Donald Trump (local time) said that he is in “no rush” to denuclearise the Korean peninsula, irrespective of the fact that the agenda was always on top of the table for the US.
“I’d just like to see, ultimately, denuclearisation of North Korea,” Trump said while addressing media at the White House, adding that he has “no pressing time schedule.”
“As long as there’s not testing, I’m in no rush.”
“If there’s testing, that’s another deal. I hope that very positive things are going to happen,” Yonhap News Agency quoted Trump, as saying.
The US President’s remarks come ahead of the second summit between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, slated to be held on February 27 and 28 in Vietnam.
During the first Summit which was held at Singapore’s Sentosa Island, Trump and Kim had agreed on a spectrum of issues, the most prominent being the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
However, the US and North Korea reached an impasse regarding sanctions relief for Pyongyang soon after the first Summit, leading to extremely slow progress on the denuclearisation front.
North Korea has sought relief in sanctions in light of the steps taken by the country towards denuclearisation. The US, however, has repeatedly stated that there would be no sanctions relief until complete denuclearisation is achieved by North Korea.
Reiterating the US’ stance, deputy spokesperson of the Department of State Robert Palladino said: “our policy goals haven’t changed at all.”
“We remain confident in the commitments made by President Trump and Chairman Kim, that those commitments made at the Singapore summit will be fulfilled, and it’s Chairman Kim’s commitment to denuclearization upon which the world is focused right now and that remains our goal,” Palladino added.
