Don’t spoil historic chance with DPRK

Singapore launches ‘World Peace’ medallion to mark Trump-Kim summit

FE Team | Published: June 06, 2018 00:31:01

Donald Trump (left) and Kim Jong Un

WASHINGTON, June 05 (Agencies): US Democrats on Monday urged President Donald Trump not to squander the "historic" opportunity of a face-to-face summit with North Korea's leader.
The lawmakers opposed any easing of sanctions without complete and verifiable denuclearisation.
Affirming their support for Trump's scheduled June 12 meeting with Kim Jong Un in Singapore, seven influential Democrats including Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Trump against signing a deal at any cost, and laid out conditions they want met before any agreement is struck.
"As we approach what could be a historic summit I'm concerned that the president lacks a real strategy in place on North Korea and risks squandering a potentially historic opportunity, putting our security and that of our allies at risk," Senator Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters.
In a letter to Trump, the lawmakers wrote that any pact explicitly or implicitly giving Pyongyang sanctions relief without verification of its obligations to dismantle its nuclear and missile arsenal "is a bad deal."
Topping their demands is the elimination of "all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons from North Korea."
Democrats also called on the White House to engage Congress throughout the diplomatic process, and stressed that were the Trump administration to start "veering off course" and sign an unsatisfactory deal, Republican and Democratic lawmakers would act.
Meanwhile, US allies in the region are privately pressing the administration to maintain pressure on the North over its regional missile programme out of concern that Trump could boost the security of the US at the expense of its partners. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is meeting Trump at the White House on Thursday to advocate for his country's interests at the talks.
Earlier, Singapore on Tuesday unveiled a commemorative medallion ahead of next week's summit between the US and North Korean leaders in the wealthy city-state, carrying the inscription 'World Peace' in large letters on one side.
The words on the medallion, featured on the online shop of the Singapore Mint, are accompanied by the dove and olive branch motif, a biblical symbol of peace, as well as a rose and a magnolia, the national flowers of the two countries.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the standoff.