Trump Aide Insists North Korea Must Give Up Its Nukes as Kim Amps Up Rhetoric, Orders More Missile Tests

White House, addressing concerns at Seoul, says Washington’s demand for North Korea to denuclearize is unchanged after Trump seems to recognize the country as a ‘nuclear power.’

Handout photo by Dong-A Ilbo via Getty Images, file
President Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, inside the demilitarized zone separating South and North Korea, June 30, 2019, at Panmunjom, South Korea. Handout photo by Dong-A Ilbo via Getty Images, file

President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un appear on a collision course that looks like the opposite of the flattery they bestowed on one another before their first meeting, in Singapore in June 2018. Even though Mr. Trump says he is happy to meet Mr. Kim, he’s sticking to the long-held American policy of demanding North Korea’s “complete denuclearization.”

Having ruffled feathers in South Korea by casually referring to Mr. Kim’s country as a “nuclear power,” Mr. Trump dialed back through a carefully worded comment from the National Security Council. The White House came out with what amounted to a clarification for the benefit of nervous officials at Seoul.

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