After arriving back in the Washington, D.C. area on Wednesday morning following his trip to Singapore for a summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, President Trump posted tweets proclaiming that Americans can now “sleep well” now because “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”
Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
Before taking office people were assuming that we were going to War with North Korea. President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous problem. No longer – sleep well tonight!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
Trump’s tweets are wrong, as North Korea maintains its nuclear capabilities and the agreement he signed with Kim doesn’t detail any sort of verifiable denuclearization process.
Instead, it merely says, “Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” The agreement does not detail how North Korea will “work toward complete denuclearization” or any sort of inspection process other countries can rely on to verify it is actually doing so, nor does it require the Kim regime to give up any of his nukes at any particular time.
Nonetheless, in interviews immediately after the summit with George Stephanopoulos and Sean Hannity, Trump insisted that Kim — who he praised as “a strong guy” with “a very good personality” who is “very strategic” and “very impressive” — could be trusted.
"He trusts me and I trust him," Pres. Trump tells @ABC News' @GStephanopoulos after historic meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. https://t.co/h4BMyYx3Ca pic.twitter.com/cTNnQec3eG
— ABC News (@ABC) June 12, 2018
During the Hannity interview, Trump claimed that Kim agreed to terms that, for some reason, didn’t make it into the actual written agreement.
And when Stephanopoulos pressed Trump how how “he is going to know that [Kim] is keeping his word,” all Trump could say is “we’re going to be following things, we’re going to be monitoring things.”
While Trump’s Wednesday morning tweets do not reflect the terms of his agreement with Kim, his words appear to be having an impact. On Wednesday morning, The Associated Press, citing nothing more than Trump’s tweets, posted a story headlined “Trump tweets NKorea no longer nuclear threat.”
BREAKING: Trump tweets North Korea no longer nuclear threat. https://t.co/pLj7hszfhr
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 13, 2018
During a news conference after the summit, Trump accidentally revealed how he’ll handle things if Kim — as he’s done in the past — doesn’t live up to his vague pledge to denuclearize.
“Honestly, I think he’s going to do these things. I may be wrong,” Trump said. “I may stand before you in six months and say, ‘hey, I was wrong.’ I don’t know that I’ll admit that but I’ll find some kind of an excuse.”