- Title: 'Naive' to expect North Korea to denuclearize - Bill Richardson
- Date: 27th February 2019
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 27, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER U.S. GOVERNOR, AND FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS, BILL RICHARDSON, SAYING: "It's another culture. They feel they're ultimately right. They feel there's a deity. Kim Jong Un is like a god. His father was a God the grandfather was a God. And he has total control of his people."
- Embargoed: 13th March 2019 22:13
- Keywords: Bill Richardson North Korea Korean War North Korea Summit Vietnam US-North Korea Summit Kim Jong Un
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / HANOI, VIETNAM
- City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES / HANOI, VIETNAM
- Country: USA
- Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00AA3D0L6V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: It's "naive" to expect North Korea to denuclearize. That's the view of Bill Richardson, an experienced North Korea hand, as well as a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as he explained to Reuters during an interview in New York Wednesday (February 27).
He spoke ahead of another day of the U.S.-North Korea summit being held in Vietnam.
A former governor of New Mexico, Richardson frequently acts as a go-between with Communist North Korea.
He tried, for instance, negotiating the release of Otto Warmbier, the U.S. college student who died in 2017 following his captivity in North Korea.
Richardson's time as a U.S. envoy goes back to 1995, when he negotiated with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to secure the release of two Americans detained after straying over the border from Kuwait.
U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will hold another day of talks at their second summit in eight months on Thursday, after swapping compliments at a dinner but giving no sign of progress on the key issue of denuclearization.
Asked by a reporter if he was "walking back" on denuclearization demands, Trump said, "No".
But Richardson threw cold water on Trump's stated hope of denuclearization.
"Well I think it was naive for the administration, and the Trump administration to think that the North Koreans were going to denuclearize," he said. "They're not going to do that. They have 54 nuclear weapons. That's their source of survival for the future and also Kim Jong Un's standing as a leader."
Trump hailed "a very special relationship" when he met Kim in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Wednesday and said he was satisfied with the pace of talks, despite some criticism they were not moving quickly enough.
"Great meetings" and a "Very good dialogue," Trump said on Twitter after dinner with Kim at Hanoi's French-colonial-era Metropole hotel while the White House said the two planned to sign a "joint agreement" after further talks on Thursday.
Richardson said the bonhomie is a strength for the president.
"Well what stands now, on the good side, obviously a very strong personal relationship between Kim Jong Un and the president. On the bad side, on the concerning side, is the possibility that this summit will not yield anything significant on the denuclearization of North Korea."
The White House has given no indication of what the signing ceremony might involve, although the two sides' discussions have included the possibility of a political statement to declare the 1950-53 Korean War over, which some critics say would be premature.
And the outcome of the talks are being followed by the region, Richardson said, who also stressed the vulnerability of U.S. troops still stationed in the area.
"Well Japan right now is very worried that they haven't participated in the negotiations. They're vulnerable to a missile attack from North Korea. It's a big issue in Japan. South Korea also because they are right on the border with North Korea. They would be the first recipients of, hopefully never, a missile or a nuclear weapon. So there's 25 million South Koreans. The United States too. We have 28,000 troops in South Korea. We have 50,000 troops in Japan. So we have to protect them and their families, besides our commitments to South Korea and Japan that we will defend them if they are attacked," he said.
U.S. concessions could include opening liaison offices or clearing the way for inter-Korean projects, but critics say Trump risks squandering vital leverage if he gives away too much, too quickly.
The Hanoi summit was Trump's second with Kim since an inconclusive meeting in Singapore in June that produced much fanfare but little substance and there had been little sign of concrete progress since.
The U.S. president nevertheless appeared upbeat with Kim even as his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen testified at a congressional hearing in Washington, calling Trump a "conman" who knew in advance about the release of stolen emails aimed at hurting his Democratic rival in the 2016 election campaign.
Facing mounting pressure at home over investigations into Russian meddling in the election, Trump has sought a big win by trying to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for promises of peace and development, a foreign policy goal that has confounded multiple predecessors.
These developments undoubtedly complicate Trump's North Korean agenda, according to Richardson.
"Well my concern is that the president has a lot of distractions now," he told Reuters. "He's got this Mueller investigation. The Cohen testimony. The shutdown which I think politically has hurt him. He's got 'The Wall' issue in the Congress. So he wants a victory. He wants a distraction. The problem is that he's not going to push Kim Jong Un the way he should. Now there is less tension in the peninsula. And I give the president credit for the summit, for going straight on with Kim Jong Un. I just think that we're giving up too much to Kim Jong Un at this juncture."
On Thursday, the two leaders have a series of meetings scheduled at the Metropole, beginning with another one-on-one session lasting 45 minutes, the White House said.
After a "joint agreement signing ceremony" Trump plans a news conference at 3:50 p.m. Hanoi time (0850 GMT).
(Production by: Dan Fastenberg) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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