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| In this file photo taken on June 12, 2018, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shake hands following a signing ceremony during their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island in Singapore. AP-Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung, Kim Yoo-chul
The main purpose of February's summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump was to get Trump to recognize North Korea as a nuclear weapon state, a document obtained by Voice of America (VOA), showed Monday.
The document published by the Workers' Party of Korea's publishing service was released in November last year, three months before the second Trump-Kim summit in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
In the document, the North Korean leader said he was aiming for a final nuclear deal with Trump because the North had been approached by Washington with plans to disband the regime's nuclear capability. The document had been distributed to several key military North Korean units and used as learning material ahead of Kim's encounter with Trump, the U.S. media outlet said.
Kim was also quoted as saying in the document that his summit with Trump was a step toward getting international recognition as a nuclear weapon state by further strengthening its nuclear ability. Kim was also said to have declared North Korea a nuclear weapon state, according to the report.
In a briefing Monday morning, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said it was teaming up with other relevant ministries to check the authenticity of the report.
As defined by the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), China, France, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom are legally viewed as nuclear weapon states. India and Pakistan, which along with Israel are "de-facto" nuclear weapon states outside the NPT. These de-facto countries were continuing to develop new missile systems that are capable of delivering nuclear weapons and also expanding their own capacities to produce fissile material.
In Hanoi, Trump demanded Kim Jong-un hand over a list of his regime's hidden nuclear facilities and whereabouts of the facilities able to produce fissile materials and uranium enrichment sites in addition to the presented plan for the dismantlement and destruction of Pyongyang's major Yongbyon nuclear complex. Kim didn't accept the request and Trump refused to provide his reciprocal measures for a lifting of economic sanctions. The two leaders walked away from the negotiating table with no results.
