North Korea–United States relations

Watching the historic summit in June with Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, North Korea expert Andrei Lankov says he was not very hopeful about Kim giving up his country’s nuclear weapons. But he says there are still opportunities for success.

Just weeks before he’s set to meet the North Korean leader in Singapore, President Donald Trump announced his controversial decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal on May 8. And though Trump had promised to exit the Obama-era arrangement since his campaign days in 2016, pulling the trigger so close to his face-to-face meeting with Kim could set a weary tone for nuclear negotiations — or it could turn up the pressure on both countries to reach an agreement.

Seoul officials see the talks as the starting point of President Moon Jae-in’s initiative to denuclearize and build lasting peace on the peninsula, beginning with a freeze in the North’s nuclear program and ending in its complete abolishment.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday urged North Korea to carry out a “sustained cessation” of weapons testing to allow the two countries to hold talks about Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.

The government of North Korea says it has stopped disabling its nuclear facilities because the U.S. has violated a disarmament deal.