China will have a role in North Korea’s denuclearisation, but not just yet, analysts say
First priority is for US and North Korea to continue dialogue and establish a clear road map for removal of weapons
While North Korea and the United States have agreed in principle to the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula, how the two sides now make progress on the commitments they made in Singapore is far from clear, analysts said.
The priority for Washington has always been the “complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement” (CVID) of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme. Pyongyang, meanwhile, is more concerned with the preservation of Kim Jong-un’s regime and the creation of economic development opportunities.
Su Hao, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, said now that the wheels were in motion on the denuclearisation issue, the devil would be in the detail.
“There are likely to be two forks in any future negotiations,” he said. “And the establishment of a peace regime on the Korean peninsula will be built upon the precondition of denuclearisation.”
Despite the historical significance of the meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump, the joint statement it yielded contained few specifics. Trump said after the meeting that North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat, though exactly how he could justify that claim remains moot.