Asia Foundation Trustees Comment on Trump-Kim summit
Asia Foundation Trustees Ambassador Kathleen Stephens and Michael J. Green weigh in on the recent U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore.
CNN feature: History beckons for Trump and Kim
“My own sense is that he would only be ready to (totally disarm) at the end of a very long process and that his goal at the present time is to remain a de facto nuclear power while reducing the sense of worry and threat about that so he can begin to develop the economy,” said Kathleen Stephens, a former US ambassador to South Korea.
“I do think he is very serious about wanting to make North Korea a more normal country, looking more like its neighbors, more like a successful Asian economy,” said Stephens, now with the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University.
Bloomberg article: Trump, Kim Voice Optimism Over Path to Peace as Summit Opens
By sitting down with an American president — a longtime goal of North Korea’s government — Kim’s regime is advancing its effort to establish its “reputation, respect, and credibility as a nuclear weapon state,” said Michael J. Green, senior vice president for Asia and Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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