Following his historic meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Trump tweeted: “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” Although Trump and Kim may have agreed to work towards denuclearization, recent satellite images showing ongoing work at nuclear sites demonstrates that the initial agreement needs to be supported with clear and well-defined commitments from North Korea. The White House seems to understand this as well, as last week, the declared “national emergency” was extended due to North Korean missiles.
Trump’s efforts to sit down with Kim Jong Un were a step in the right direction, but the meeting did not, by itself, force North Korea to give up its nuclear capabilities. For Trump’s pledge to become a reality, the Trump administration must push Kim to a strict timeline of denuclearization with benchmarks that can be monitored. Without such a commitment, the agreement Trump and Kim signed in Singapore is meaningless.
To ensure that the document signed in Singapore is more than just words, these details have to be hammered out during Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to North Korea, which was announced today. Prior to Trump’s meeting with Kim, Pompeo expressed that a deal with North Korea would need to include inspection of all nuclear sites — both those currently acknowledged and those that are still denied by North Korea.
Pompeo seems confident that despite the ambiguous terms of the agreement between Trump and Kim, North Korea understands what the U.S. means by complete denuclearization. He might be right that they understand what the U.S. means, but the activity captured by the satellite images shows that they have not yet stopped work on developing nuclear capabilities.
If Pompeo is able to realize his stated commitment of monitoring sites and work out the details of the timeline for denuclearization with North Korean leaders, Trump and Kim’s meeting and agreement may well be seen as the opening chapter in a new era of relations with the reclusive dictatorship. If there is no firm commitment to allowing U.S. monitoring of sites and an actionable timeline for denuclearization, however, Trump’s legacy with North Korea will not be quite as clear-cut as he would have his Twitter followers believe. As the satellite images show, North Korea may not be as compliant with U.S. wishes as Trump and his administration would like us to think.
