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Following the historic Singapore summit, U.S. President Donald Trump has come under criticism for failing to secure details, such as including complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID) in the joint statement.
Trump defended himself saying that details will be discussed at follow-up negotiations between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his North Korea counterpart Kim Yong-chol.
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| Troy Stangarone |
First of all, he said there needs to be an "agreement on a framework and timetable" for denuclearization.
"This (the Singapore accord) is a very broad agreement and much work remains to be done. We need firm timelines to keep the process moving forward," Stangarone said in an interview following the landmark summit.
The joint statement signed by the two leaders has been hit for carrying few details, including timeline, framework and short-term commitment by the North.
He thinks that while President Trump is touting North Korea's agreement to dismantle its missile engine test site, the U.S. seems to have only received general promises to denuclearize in return.
"If there are legitimate technical constraints, flexibility will be warranted, but we need to prevent the process from dragging out."
"We are still farther away from North Korea dismantling its nuclear program than during the Six Party Talks.
From his perspective, the Singapore statement lacks the details of the 2003 Six Party Talks where North Korea agreed to "abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning, at an early date, to the Nonproliferation Treaty of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA safeguards."
Stangarone, currently senior director at the Korea Economic Institute (KEI), said that the second most important thing is for North Korea to provide a "declaration of its nuclear program."
"North Korea has never provided a nuclear declaration, but one will need to compare with intelligence estimates to determine if North Korea is being forthcoming about its program and what undeclared suspected sites will need to be inspected," he said.
He stressed that it is critical that in future negotiations "verifiable" is included in the statement because it is important to ensure that both parties have a clear understanding of what they are committing to.
"Vague language provides space for misinterpretations or grey areas to avoid commitments. We cannot infer meaning in the use of 'complete' which is not there," he said.?
"Something can be completed without being verified, and without strictly defining the meaning we cannot ensure verification."
The Washington-based expert compares the ongoing situation with the difficulty the Obama administration got into with the Leap Day agreement when the two sides had different interpretations of what missile test ban meant as North Korea insisted it still had the right to make satellite launches.
He believes that the Singapore agreement favors the Kim Jong-un regime in two aspects.
"Kim Jong-un seems to have done very well at the summit having achieved two of North Korea's long-time goals _ a meeting with a sitting U.S. president as an equal and the end of military exercises," he said.
He explained that Trump's agreement to end military exercises is a significant concession on the part of the U.S., and it will have implications for the U.S. and South Korea's ability to deter North Korea and defend against attack.
On Tuesday, Seoul and Washington decided to suspend the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) exercise slated for August.
