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Donald Trump keeps faith in Kim Jong-un despite North Korea’s threat of ‘shocking action’
- Negotiations between the two nations have been largely deadlocked since the break-up of their Hanoi summit in February
- Experts say the North will continue to build up its nuclear arsenal but will not test-launch ICBMs at risk of angering China and Russia
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US President Donald Trump believes Kim Jong-un will keep his commitments on denuclearisation, despite the North Korean leader’s effective retraction of his pledge to refrain from carrying out nuclear and long-range missile tests.
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“We did sign a contract, talking about denuclearisation. That was the No 1 sentence, ‘denuclearisation’, that was done in Singapore. I think he’s a man of his word,” Trump told reporters before heading to New Year festivities at his holiday retreat in Florida.
The president also said he still has a good relationship with Kim, and urged him not to step up provocations with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test.
Kim had said North Korea would show off a “new strategic weapon” in the near future and continue building up its nuclear deterrent in the face of “gangster-like” US sanctions, according to Pyongyang state media.
He also said the North was abandoning its moratoriums on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, accusing the United States of playing for time while waiting for the North to weaken gradually.
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A self-imposed ban on such tests has been the centrepiece of the nuclear diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington over the past two years, which has seen three meetings between Kim and Trump, but little tangible progress.
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