North Korea is no longer demanding the removal of US troops from South Korea in return for “complete de-nuclearisation”, according to South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, easing concerns that Pyongyang may demand excessive concessions from Seoul and Washington in its summits.
Mr Moon said yesterday it would not be difficult to reach broad agreements with North Korea on de-nuclearisation and signing a peace treaty on the peninsula in return for normalised relations with Washington and economic aid for Pyongyang.
But he cautioned that Seoul and Washington would face tough challenges in working out a detailed road map to implement any deal, given the difficulty of verifying that North Korea had dismantled its nuclear arsenal.