North Korea highlights Trump concessions on war games after summit

NorthKorean state media lauded on Wednesday thesummitbetween Kim Jong Un and DonaldTrumpas a resounding success, highlightingconcessionsby the USpresident and the prospect of a new era of peace and prosperity on theKorean peninsula.

TheKorean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported thatTrumpexpressed his intention to halt US-SouthKoreamilitary exercises, offer security guarantees to theNorthand lift sanctions against it as relations improve.

The US president told a news conference on Tuesday,afterhissummitwithNorthKorea's leader in Singapore, he would like to lift sanctions against it but it would not happen immediately.

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Kim andTrumpinvited each other to their respective countries and both leaders "gladly accepted", KCNA reported.

Thesummitwas the first between a sitting USpresident and aNorthKorean leader and followed a flurry ofNorthKorean nuclear and missile tests and angry exchanges of insults and threats betweenTrumpand Kim last year that fuelled fears ofwar.

"Kim Jong Un andTrumphad the shared recognition to the effect that it is important to abide by the principle of step-by-step and simultaneous action in achieving peace, stability and denuclearisation of theKorean Peninsula," KCNA said.

Trumpconfirmed the United States would stop military exercises with SouthKoreawhileNorthKoreanegotiated on denuclearisation.

"We're not going to be doing thewargamesas long as we're negotiating in good faith,"Trump told Fox News Channel in an interview in Singaporeafterthesummit.

"So that's good for a number of reasons, in addition to which we save a tremendous amount of money,"Trumpsaid."You know, those things, they cost.I hate to appear a businessman, but I kept saying, what's it costing?"

USRepublican Senator Lindsey Graham saidTrump's reasoning for halting the exercises was "ridiculous".

"It's not a burden onto the American taxpayer to have a forward deployed force in SouthKorea," Graham told CNN.

"It brings stability. It's awarning to China that you can't just take over the whole region. So I reject that analysis that it costs too much, but I do accept the proposition, let's stand down (on military exercises) and see if we can find a better way here."

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he hoped all parties could "grasp the moment of positive changes" on the peninsula to take constructive steps towards a political resolution and promoting denuclearisation.

"At this time, everyone had seen thatNorthKoreahas halted missile and nuclear tests, and the United States and SouthKoreahave to an extent restricted their military actions. This has de facto realised China's dual suspension proposal," he told a daily news briefing.

"When it comes toTrump's statement yesterday that he would halt SouthKoreaand the United States' military drills, I can only say that China's proposal is indeed practical and reasonable, is in line with all sides interests and can resolve all sides concerns."

China,NorthKorea's main ally, last year proposed what it calls a "dual suspension", whereby NorthKoreasuspend nuclear and missile tests, and SouthKoreaand the United States suspend military drills.

Surprise

There was some confusion over precisely what military cooperation with SouthKoreaTrumphad promised to halt.

The US-SouthKorean exercise calendar hits a high point every year with the Foal Eagle and Max Thunder drills, which both wrapped up last month. Another major exercise is due in August.

The United States maintains about 28,500 soldiers in SouthKorea, which remains in a technical state ofwarwith theNorthafterthe 1950-53KoreanWarended in a truce not a peace treaty.

Trump's announcement on the exercises was a surprise even to SouthKorea's President Moon Jae-in, who has worked in recent months to help bring about theTrump-Kimsummit.

Asked aboutTrump's comments, SouthKorean presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told reporters there was a need to seek measures that would help improve engagement withNorth Koreabut it was also necessary to confirm exactly whatTrumphad meant.

Moon will be chairing a national security meeting on Thursday to discuss thesummit.

Trump's administration had previously ruled out anyconcessionsor lifting of sanctions without NorthKorea's commitment to complete, verifiable and irreversible steps to scrap a nuclear arsenal that is advanced enough to threaten the United States.

But a joint statement issuedafterthesummitsaid onlyNorthKorea"commits to work towards the complete denuclearisation of theKorean peninsula".

Critics in the United States saidTrumphad given away too much at a meeting that gave Kim long-sought international standing.

TheNorthKorean leader had been isolated, his country accused of widespread human rights abuses and under UNsanctions for its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

"ForNorthKorea, they got exactly what they wanted," said Moon Seong-mook, a former SouthKorean military official current head of the Unification Strategy Centre in Seoul.

"They had asummitas a nuclear state with Kim on equal turf withTrump, got the United States to halt joint military exercises with SouthKorea. It's a win for Kim Jong Un."

USSecretary of State Mike Pompeo was due in Seoul on Wednesday. He is scheduled to meet Moon on Thursday and then hold a trilateral meeting with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono.

Hope

Japan's Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera said that, whileNorthKoreahad pledged denuclearisation, no concrete steps had been taken and Japan would not let down its guard.

"We see US-SouthKorean joint exercises and the USmilitary presence in SouthKoreaas vital to security in East Asia," Onodera told reporters. "It is up to the USand SouthKoreato decide about their joint exercises. We have no intention of changing our joint drills with the US."

Japan would only start shouldering the costs ofNorthKorea's denuclearisationafterthe International Atomic Energy Agency restarts inspections, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

The Singaporesummitdid not get top billing in the main state news outlets in China.

The ruling Communist Party's main newspaper, the People's Daily, published a brief report on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's reaction to the talks.

The English-language China Daily said in an editorial that, while it remained to be seen if the summitwould be a defining moment, the fact it went smoothly was positive.

"It has ignited hopes that they will be finally able to put an end to their hostility and that the long-standing peninsula issues can finally be resolved. These hopes should not be extinguished," it said.