South Korea’s top diplomat on Wednesday said that the next nuclear summit between the U.S. and North Korea must “deliver concrete results on denuclearization,” according to Reuters.
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told the World Economic Forum in Davos that President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un should make “really great big strides” in negotiating peace on the Korean peninsula and the dismantling of the hermit nation’s nuclear arsenal.
{mosads}Trump and Kim first met in Singapore in June for a historic summit to begin negotiating North Korea’s denuclearization. It was the first time that a U.S. president had met with a leader from the rogue nation.
The two sides signed a joint declaration called for the “complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” in exchange for unspecified security guarantees.
Though the president hailed the meeting as a success and suggested the process of eliminating North Korea’s nuclear arsenal had begun, no evidence to support that claim has emerged while satellite pictures have shown missile sites in North Korea remain active.
The White House announced Friday after Trump met Pyongyang’s top nuclear negotiator that a second summit would take place in February.
U.S. and North Korean officials still appear to be at an impasse over a path to denuclearization, with Washington saying evidence must be presented of Pyongyang dismantling its nuclear arsenal for sanctions to be relieved, while North Korea says sanctions must be lifted before any action is taken.
In a New Year’s Day address, Kim warned that North Korea would have to seek a “new path” if the U.S. moves forward with sanctions over Pyongyang’s weapons program.