Kim meeting speculation flares ahead of Trump’s visit to South Korea

Some call for the role of diplomacy to ease the danger of North Korea’s enlarged nuclear arsenal. But others caution against Trump settling for rewarding North Korea with an extensive relaxing of sanctions in return for limited steps like freezing its unfinished long-range missile program targeting the U.S. Such deals would leave North Korea with already-built, short-range nuclear missiles targeting South Korea. Kim Taewoo, another former head of the Institute of National Unification, said “such a small deal” would still benefit South Korea’s security because decades-long efforts to achieve a complete denuclearization of North Korea have made little progress. “If North Korea possesses an ability to strike the U.S., can the U.S. freely exercise its extended deterrence pledge in the event that North Korea attacks South Korea?” Kim Taewoo said, referring to a U.S. promise to mobilize all military capabilities to protect South Korea. The country has no nuclear weapons of its own and is under the so-called U.S. “nuclear umbrella” protection. Chung, the former university dean, said there are virtually no chances for North Korea to give up its nuclear program. But he said that giving North Korea sanctions relief in return for partial denuclearization steps would trigger calls in South Korea and Japan for their countries to also be allowed to have nuclear weapons.