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US-DPRK Talks: 'Trump Would See This Meeting as Element of His Legacy' - Scholar

© AP Photo / Ahn Young-joonPeople pass by a TV screen showing file footages of U.S. President Donald Trump, right, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 9, 2018
People pass by a TV screen showing file footages of U.S. President Donald Trump, right, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 9, 2018 - Sputnik International
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US President Donald Trump has said that high-level talks between Washington and Pyongyang are underway. During his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump told reporters that direct talks with North Korea have begun. Radio Sputnik spoke about this with Dr. Robert Winstanley-Chesters, Research Fellow at Australian National University.

Let’s look at this upcoming meeting with North Korea, do you think it might eventually lead to the country’s denuclearization?

I think it’s yet to be really shown whether, what we mean by denuclearization in the context of these talks. We know North Korea means a different thing when it talks about denuclearization than when the United States talks about denuclearization. So it’s still a bit unclear whether each side knows what the other side is really meaning. 

In North Korea denuclearization would mean removal of United States troops from South Korea, which would be an enormous change to United States policy in Asia Pacific.

READ MORE: Trump Says He's Spoken Personally With North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un

How important is this meeting for Donald Trump? Obviously if it goes well, if it goes his way it could be a big win for him, right? 

That is exactly true. I think Donald Trump is going to expand a lot of capital a lot of diplomatic and personal capital on this meeting. He is going to be extremely unpopular with a great number of people involved in the sort of United States security apparatus and sort of diplomacy apparatus and also with Congress and House of Representatives you will see a lot of push back about this, but I would see that Donald Trump would see this meeting or any sort of solution or mitigation of the Korean issue as a perhaps a real element of his legacy. We all know that his legacy is going to be challenged in lots of ways, but this would be a real win for him.

READ MORE: Abe Hails ‘Successful’ Approach of Japan, US to Settlement of N Korean Crisis

Even if actual denuclearization is off the table when they meet; but still do you think we are likely to see diplomatic relations between North Korea and the United States actually normalized after that meeting?

It takes a lot to think of United States and North Korean relations being normalized as we might understand. If you look at the last big law signed by Congress about North Korean sanctions in the United States, which is HR 757, if you look at the clauses about normalizing the situation and reneging on sanctions, what North Korea would have to do is extraordinary. Establishing an open, transparent and representative society for example is one of the clauses to get the sanctions lifted. I can’t see normal relations occurring any time soon between North Korea and the United States, but I can see slightly better relations and certainly better relations than we had at the end of last year.

The views and opinions expressed by Dr. Robert Winstanley-Chesters are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.


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