Maybe talks with North Korea work out, maybe not

But that’s not the case.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency said Saturday North Korea has chose to shut down its main nuclear test site and suspend nuclear and missile tests. “China’s suggestion is, as a first step, for North Korea to suspend nuclear activity, and for the US and South Korea to also suspend large-scale military drills”, he said.

North Korea, however, has apparently put more emphasis on bolstering its nuclear capacities than on shoring up the economy, given that the Asian country has continued to carry out ballistic missile and nuclear tests for the past several years. “Denuclearization” does not necessarily mean the same thing to both countries, a nuance that the inexperienced Trump entourage may not grasp.

Donald Trump is at his Florida resort today, with the television tuned into “Fake News NBC”, where anchor Chuck Todd was previewing his show, Meet the Press. A Gallup poll conducted in the aftermath of North Korean missile testing last September found that 58% of South Koreans supported nuclear armament, while only 38% of South Koreans opposed the idea. If true, it would seem to remove a major sticking point to a potential disarmament deal.

For the past few weeks, South Korea has been renovating Peace House, on its side of Panmunjom, to prepare for the summit with Kim, who will be the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Kim is expected to meet Trump in late May or early June, the first meeting between sitting leaders of the two countries.

Kim Jong Un’s suspension of North Korean nuclear tests has strings attached.

“Kim will not offer CVID at the door”, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Dongguk University, who is advising Moon on his summit with Kim.

But the deal collapsed after US officials alleged the North was conducting a clandestine uranium enrichment program and newly elected President George W. Bush labeled the North part of an “axis of evil” with Iran and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., takes questions during a TV news interview on Capitol Hill, April 19, 2018.

Even China, which is accustomed to controlling its relationship with North Korea without interference from other powers, is chafing at the speed of events, and the increasingly warm feelings between Pyongyang and Washington.

“Well, I don’t think he said anything about denuclearizing on the front end necessarily”, he said. I think the only way for that to go is through a military option. “I hope that everything will be really abolished”.

The United States expects North Korea to agree to verifiable measures to halt the development of new nuclear weapons, eliminate its existing nuclear weapons and dismantle its ability to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program in the future. The more realistic goal now is to freeze, reduce or contain North Korea’s bellicose capabilities, but not eliminate them. “The president was very strong and reassuring on that front”, the official said. “And of course the reputation of the North Koreans has been that they don’t necessarily keep their agreements”.