The Trump White House is reacting skeptically in private to North Korea's announcement of plans to freeze nuclear weapons testing, warning that dictator Kim Jong Un could be setting a trap and vowing not to back off a hard-line stance ahead of a potential leaders' summit.
Behind the scenes his aides cautioned Saturday that Kim's statement that the North would halt testing and shutter one nuclear facility was more notable for what he left out: a direct pledge to work toward nuclear disarmament.
Kim's announcement early Saturday in Pyongyang surprised White House officials who had been anticipating him making some sort of statement to the North Korean people in advance of a summit with Trump but did not know when or how he would deliver it.
At the same time, the two countries would work toward establishing greater trust that could lead to more serious talks over full disarmament down the road. "The reality is that North Korea has nuclear weapons, and we have to deal with that reality," said Toby Dalton, the co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Seeking to put caps on the North's program could be interpreted as the Trump administration accepting North Korea as a nuclear state, a controversial idea inside the U.S. government, where a policy of nuclear nonproliferation has long been taken as an article of faith.
The idea of openly acknowledging North Korea as a nuclear power remains an outlier position, especially given the assumption that it could trigger a nuclear arms race, prompting Japan and South Korea to pursue their own weapons.
Jon Wolfsthal, who oversaw arms control and nonproliferation policy at the National Security Council under President Barack Obama, said a major concern over accepting the North as a nuclear power, even for a limited period, is that Pyongyang would "Pocket that and walk away. A lot of people are worried that's exactly what Kim is trying to do with the summit."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-white-house-north-korea-nuclear-plan-20180421-story.html
Behind the scenes his aides cautioned Saturday that Kim's statement that the North would halt testing and shutter one nuclear facility was more notable for what he left out: a direct pledge to work toward nuclear disarmament.
Kim's announcement early Saturday in Pyongyang surprised White House officials who had been anticipating him making some sort of statement to the North Korean people in advance of a summit with Trump but did not know when or how he would deliver it.
At the same time, the two countries would work toward establishing greater trust that could lead to more serious talks over full disarmament down the road. "The reality is that North Korea has nuclear weapons, and we have to deal with that reality," said Toby Dalton, the co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Seeking to put caps on the North's program could be interpreted as the Trump administration accepting North Korea as a nuclear state, a controversial idea inside the U.S. government, where a policy of nuclear nonproliferation has long been taken as an article of faith.
The idea of openly acknowledging North Korea as a nuclear power remains an outlier position, especially given the assumption that it could trigger a nuclear arms race, prompting Japan and South Korea to pursue their own weapons.
Jon Wolfsthal, who oversaw arms control and nonproliferation policy at the National Security Council under President Barack Obama, said a major concern over accepting the North as a nuclear power, even for a limited period, is that Pyongyang would "Pocket that and walk away. A lot of people are worried that's exactly what Kim is trying to do with the summit."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-white-house-north-korea-nuclear-plan-20180421-story.html
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