American negotiators are still working with their North Korean counterparts to “advance” to a “shared understanding of what ‘denuclearization’ is,” President Trump’s team said Thursday, less than a week before the two countries hold their second summit.
“That’s one of the places where we think we can successfully build on the joint Singapore statement,” a senior administration official told reporters. “It’s certainly a high priority for my team this week.”
The administration has spent eight months applauding North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s “commitment to complete denuclearization” in the Singapore statement, signed after Trump and Kim held their historic first summit last June. The White House on Thursday released a fact sheet ahead of the second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 27 and 28, touting the commitment without noting that the two countries don’t actually agree on what that commitment means.
Trump’s North Korea envoy, Stephen Biegun, and other officials are already on the ground in Vietnam, trying to hammer out the structure of a new agreement the two leaders can unveil. The Singapore summit ended with Kim’s vague pledge “to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” Korea watchers were doubtful it meant Kim would abandon his arsenal — as were many in Congress.
“There are ample reasons to be skeptical that Chairman Kim is committed to a nuclear-free North Korea,” three Democratic House committee chairmen wrote Thursday in a letter to Trump. “A summit that amounts to little more than spectacle will further erode the public confidence and the credibility of the United States, an outcome that we all wish to avoid.”
That skepticism is well-founded, the administration acknowledged. “I don’t know if North Korea has made the choice yet to denuclearize, but the reason why we’re engaged in this is because we believe there is a possibility that North Korea could make the choice to denuclearize,” the senior administration official said.
[Related: What Trump needs from Kim Jong Un]
The three Democratic lawmakers who wrote the letter — Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel of New York, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff of California, and Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith of Washington — are also angry that the White House has left Congress in the dark about the progress of the talks.
“It is unacceptable that the administration is planning for a second meeting with Chairman Kim before Congress has been briefed by Secretary Pompeo on the June 2018 Singapore Summit,” the trio wrote. “There is no legitimate reason for having failed to provide regular, senior-level briefings to the relevant committees of jurisdiction on a matter of such significance to our national security.”
The administration couldn’t tell reporters if it’s come to a common understanding on any issues with the North Koreans. “We are in the midst of negotiating on some issues and as is often the case in these negotiations nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to,” the official said.
