President Trump, after a daylong historic summit with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un on Tuesday, announced plans to suspend military exercises on the Korean Peninsula and said he expected Kim to move “very quickly” to dismantle his country’s nuclear arsenal.

The summit meeting was the first of its kind between a sitting American president and a North Korean leader, and it ended in a joint statement that opened the door to ending seven decades of hostility between the two countries.

Trump said at a news conference that the United States would stop “the war games,” in what appeared to be a concession to the North. He said the exercises were expensive and “very provocative,” though both the Pentagon and South Korean military were caught off guard by the announcement.

In a joint statement after the leaders’ first face-to-face meeting, the United States “committed to provide security guarantees” to the North. In exchange, Kim “reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” But Trump said economic sanctions against North Korea would remain in place.

In the joint statement, Trump “committed to provide security guarantees” to North Korea. Kim “reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

But the statement was short on details and did not lay out potential next steps or a timetable. It was not immediately released to reporters, but was legible in a photo of Trump holding it up at the ceremony.

The statement said the two nations would hold “follow-on negotiations” led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a high-level North Korean official “at the earliest possible date, to implement the outcomes” of the summit meeting.

The statement also said the two nations would “join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime” on the divided Korean Peninsula, meaning talks to reduce military tensions that could eventually lead to a formal peace treaty to end the Korean War.

Source: New York Times

BDST: 1100 HRS, JUN 13, 2018
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