Trump is considering a second-term deal with Kim Jong Un
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Donald Trump is considering making a deal with North Korea's Kim Jong-un that would allow him to keep some nuclear weapons if he wins a second term next year. People familiar with his thinking said he was exploring a deal that would lift some sanctions as part of an agreement to stop building nuclear warheads.
South Korea's spy agency recently said it expected its secretive neighbor to carry out a nuclear test next year – the first since 2017. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are already at their highest point in years. Kim is believed to be accelerating his nuclear and missile programs and has enshrined in law his country's right to carry out pre-emptive strikes.
Against that backdrop, Trump is reportedly eager to make a deal. “He knows he wants a deal,” a source told Politico. 'What kind of deal? I don't think he thought it through.” Such thinking would upend Washington's stance on North Korea and Trump's own hardline stance, but would also benefit from the former president's friendly relationship with his North Korean leader.
One of the ideas being considered, sources told the newspaper, would involve encouraging Kim to freeze his nuclear program in exchange for aid and some relief from economic sanctions. It would include a verification mechanism to ensure he kept his word.
Current US policy demands that Pyongyang give up its nuclear weapons. Part of Trump's motivation for changing course is reportedly that it would allow a new administration to save resources and energy on pointless arms talks, which could focus on the larger threat from China. But it would likely rile allies like Japan and South Korea, as well as Republicans in Congress.
During his first term, Trump's position was encompassed by the acronym CVID, or “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.” Tensions rose after North Korea tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile, and Trump vowed to rain “fire and fury” on Kim's hermit nation if it threatened the US.
He called Kim “little rocket man” and at one point even discussed the idea of launching a nuclear attack on North Korea and blaming it on another country. His approach was later softened. The two leaders met in 2019 and sent personal letters, although their relationship did not yield an agreement on North Korea's nuclear arsenal.
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