North Korea denuclearisation process ‘not fully on track’, says South Korea unification minister

Seoul, Dec 19: The year 2018 has seen world politics intensifying around peace in the Korean Peninsula with US President Donald Trump meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a historical first meeting in Singapore in June. However, the top-level meetings (Kim also met Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in a number of times while Trump met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe time and again) have not necessarily ensured that the process of denuclearisation of North Korea has been on track.

On Wednesday, December 19, South Korea's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said that the much anticipated process was yet to get "fully on track", indicating that Seoul is still not convinced the US and North Korea have come with a robust time table to discuss and deliberate on corresponding measures towards the goal, the Korea Herald reported.

"Regarding the issue of North Korea's denuclearization, it would be an accurate assessment to say that the process (of talks between the US and the North) is not fully on track at the moment," Cho told the media.

"There have been a US-North Korea summit and interactions between ranking officials from both sides, but we remain at a stage where both sides are struggling to be on the same page regarding practical and corresponding measures on denuclearization."