President Donald Trump was full of kind words for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after their historic summit in Singapore on Tuesday.
Trump says he trusts Kim to follow through on his promises, but admits he “may be wrong”
“I don’t know that I’ll ever admit that, but I’ll find some kind of an excuse.”
Li Zhou is a former politics reporter at Vox, where she covers Congress and elections. Previously, she was a tech policy reporter at Politico and an editorial fellow at the Atlantic.
In press appearances after the meeting, Trump praised the North Korean leader for his intellect and personality, and said that he trusts Kim to follow through on his promises, though he added that he “may be wrong.”
“Honestly, I think he’s going to do these things. I may be wrong; I mean, I may stand before you in six months and say, ‘Hey, I was wrong,’” he said during a press conference, adding, “I don’t know that I’ll ever admit that, but I’ll find some kind of an excuse.”
As Vox’s Jennifer Williams reported, Trump and Kim signed an agreement with the stated goal of building “a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.” The agreement consists of four major points:
1. The United States and the DPRK commit to establish new US-DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity. (DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the formal name of North Korea.)
2. The US and the DPRK will join their efforts to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018, Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
4. The US and the DPRK commit to recovering POW/MIA remains, including the immediate repatriation of those already identified.
Trump also announced that the US would suspend its joint military exercises with South Korea, a move that surprised many, including South Korea, apparently.
Trump and Kim’s agreement has been viewed as a step forward, but it’s also garnered criticism for being extremely vague and less demanding of North Korea’s denuclearization program than previous deals that the US has made with the country.
