President Trump's North Korea Summits Gave Kim Jong Un 'de Facto Nuclear State Status,' Ban Ki-moon
President Trump's North Korea Summits Gave Kim Jong Un 'de Facto Nuclear State Status,' Ban Ki-moon Says
BY SUYIN HAYNES
JUNE 17, 2020 6:21 AM EDT
Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that Kim Jong Un played to President Donald Trump’s “ego and penchant for pageantry” during their three one-on-one high-profile summits in 2018 and 2019, and that the North Korean leader “seems to have succeeded in acquiring de facto nuclear state status.”
Ban’s comments come amid escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula, as South Korean officials said Tuesday that North Korea had blown up a joint liaison office, located near the border and designed to facilitate better communication between the two countries.
In an interview during Wednesday’s TIME100 Talks, Ban said that he was “very worried” about ongoing missile tests in North Korea, and that the United States has changed its position on North Korea’s acceptable behavior. “President Trump has been saying that it’s okay that [North Korea] are testing some small range missiles, as it cannot reach the American continent. It’s not only the security and safety of the American continent. It’s the safety, security and threat to the whole of humanity,” Ban said.
Trump and Kim Jong Un have met three times, once in Singapore in June 2018, in Hanoi, Vietnam in February 2019, and at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in June 2019. Trump’s steps onto North Korean territory mark a first for a sitting U.S. president, although commentators have noted that there’s been little progress on North Korea’s denuclearization since. “President Trump has been able to make a good contribution, but at this time, unfortunately, by just granting a one-on-one summit three times, [it] perhaps played to Trump’s ego and penchant for pageantry, and Kim Jong Un seems to have succeeded in acquiring de facto nuclear state status,” said Ban.
More:
https://time.com/5851263/north-korea-de-facto-nuclear-state-ban-ki-moon/
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