Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un pledged to work toward complete denuclearisation

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged on Tuesday to go toward for the complete zero-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula while Washington committed to providing security guarantees for its old enemy.

“President Trump committed to providing security guarantees to the DPRK and Chairman Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” said the statement.

Trump said he anticipated the denuclearization process to begin “very, very quickly”. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean officials would hold follow-up negotiations “at the earliest possible date”, the statement said.

“It is unclear if further negotiations will lead to the end goal of denuclearization,” said Anthony Ruggiero, senior fellow of Washington’s Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank. “This looks like a restatement of where we left negotiations more than 10 years ago and not a major step forward.”

The document not explained of the international approvals that have descended North Korea’s economy for pursuing its nuclear weapons programme.

China, the third party to the truce, said it hoped North Korea and the United States could reach a basic consensus on denuclearisation.

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“At the same time, there needs to be a peace mechanism for the peninsula to resolve North Korea’s reasonable security concerns,” China’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, told reporters in Beijing.

If the joint statement does lead to a lasting detente, it could fundamentally change the security landscape of Northeast Asia, just as former U.S. President Richard Nixon visit to Beijing in 1972 led to the transformation of China.

But Li Nan, senior researcher at Plan goal, a Beijing-based Chinese public policy think tank, said the meeting had only symbolic significance. “It is too early to call it a turning point in North Korea-U.S. relations,” Li said.