Israel’s foreign ministry in a recent classified report questioned President Donald Trump’s optimistic assessment of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
According to a report from Axios, the Israeli report makes a point of noting that the brief document signed by Trump and Kim fails to commit North Korea to “full, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization,” which has long been Washington’s position.
“The agreement calls for complete denuclearization,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on Wednesday, which means that the agreement still commits Kim to the total nuclear disarmament demanded by the U.S.
The Israeli foreign ministry report also questioned Trump’s decision to suspend joint military exercises with South Korea after his meeting with Kim.
The announcement is opposite from Washington’s past rejection of China’s “freeze-for-freeze” proposal, which called for an end to the military exercises in exchange for a cease to the North’s weapons tests.
“Regardless of the smiles in the summit many in Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. Congress doubt that North Korea is sincere in its intentions,” the Israeli report stated, according to Axios, which said it obtained a copy of the report. “Our assessment is that regardless of President Trump’s statements about quick changes that are expected in North Korean policy, the road to real and substantive change if it ever happens, will be long and slow.”
Trump has praised his meeting with Kim as a historic move that significantly reduced the tensions with Pyongyang.
On Wednesday President Trump announced that North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat.
The signed document commits the U.S. to unspecified security guarantees for North Korea in exchange for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. However, Pyongyang has vowed in the past to denuclearize but has broken that promise repeatedly.
Retired Admiral Harry Harris, Trump’s pick to serve as ambassador to South Korea, challenged Trump’s claim that North Korea no longer poses a nuclear threat to the world, saying Thursday that “we have to continue to worry about that.”
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