Kim willing to denuclearize, allow US liaison in Pyongyang as 2nd day of Hanoi summit begins

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is prepared to denuclearize, he told reporters on the second day of his historic Hanoi summit with US President Donald Trump, adding that he would welcome a US liaison office in Pyongyang.

Asked by a reporter whether he was willing to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, Kim answered, “If [I wasn’t] willing to do that, I [wouldn’t] be here right now.”

Kim also said he was willing to permit the US to open a liaison office in Pyongyang. He was cautiously optimistic during an earlier press conference, promising to do his best to reach an agreement. For his part, Trump emphasized his “appreciation” for Kim’s curtailment of missile tests and repeated several times that there was “no rush” to reach a deal.

“Speed is not important – what’s important is that we do the right deal,” he affirmed, echoing the “no rush” assurances he gave Americans before departing for Hanoi – though in that context it referred to his reluctance to lift sanctions until “fully verified denuclearization” had been achieved.

An earlier NBC report indicated Trump had abandoned the requirement that Kim provide a full accounting of all the DPRK’s nukes and ballistic missile programs right there in Hanoi, citing “current and former senior US officials.”

Whether onlookers expected the talks to succeed or not, “all of them will be watching the moment that we are sitting together, side by side, as if they are watching a fantasy movie,” Kim said, as hundreds of cameras clicked off-screen.

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