On the day in February that their talks in Hanoi collapsed, US President Donald Trump handed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a piece of paper that included a blunt call for the transfer of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and bomb fuel to the US, according to the document seen by reporters.
Trump gave Kim Korean and English-language versions of the US position at Hanoi’s Metropole Hotel on Feb. 28, said a source familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was the first time that Trump himself had explicitly defined what he meant by denuclearization directly to Kim, the source said.
A lunch between the two leaders was canceled the same day. While neither side has presented a complete account of why the summit collapsed, the document might help explain it.
The document’s existence was first mentioned by US National Security Adviser John Bolton in TV interviews he gave after the two-day summit.
Bolton did not disclose in those interviews the pivotal US expectation contained in the document that North Korea should transfer its nuclear weapons and fissile material to the US.
The document appeared to represent Bolton’s long-held and hardline “Libya model” of denuclearization that North Korea has rejected repeatedly.
It probably would have been seen by Kim as insulting and provocative, analysts said.
Trump had previously distanced himself in public comments from Bolton’s approach and said a “Libya model” would be employed only if a deal could not be reached.
The idea of North Korea handing over its weapons was first proposed by Bolton in 2004. He revived the proposal last year when Trump named him national security adviser.
The document was meant to provide North Korea with a clear and concise definition of what the US meant by “final, fully verifiable denuclearization,” the source said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The US Department of State declined to comment on what would be a classified document.
After the summit, a North Korean official accused Bolton and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of “gangster-like” demands, saying that Pyongyang was considering suspending talks with the US and might rethink its self-imposed ban on missile and nuclear tests.
The English-language version of the document, seen by reporters, called for “fully dismantling North Korea’s nuclear infrastructure, chemical and biological warfare program and related dual-use capabilities; and ballistic missiles, launchers and associated facilities.”
Aside from the call for the transfer of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and bomb fuel, the document had four other key points.
It called on North Korea to provide a comprehensive declaration of its nuclear program and full access to US and international inspectors; to halt all related activities and construction of any new facilities; to eliminate all nuclear infrastructure; and to transition all nuclear program scientists and technicians to commercial activities.
The summit in Vietnam’s capital was cut short after Trump and Kim failed to reach a deal on the extent of economic sanctions relief for North Korea in exchange for its steps to give up its nuclear program.
The first summit between Trump and Kim, which took place in Singapore in June last year, was almost called off after North Korea rejected Bolton’s repeated demands for it to follow a denuclearization model under which components of Libya’s nuclear program were shipped to the US in 2004.
Seven years after a denuclearization agreement was reached between the US and then-Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, the US took part in a NATO-led military operation against his government and he was overthrown by rebels and killed.
Last year, North Korean officials called Bolton’s plan “absurd” and noted the “miserable fate” that befell Qaddafi.
After North Korea threatened to cancel the Singapore summit, Trump in May last year said that he was not pursuing a “Libya model” and that he was looking for an agreement that would protect Kim.
“He would be there, he would be running his country, his country would be very rich,” Trump said at the time. “The Libya model was a much different model. We decimated that country.”
The Hanoi document was presented in what US officials have said was an attempt by Trump to secure a “big deal,” under which all sanctions would be lifted if North Korea gave up all of its weapons.
US-North Korean engagement has appeared to be in limbo since the Hanoi meeting.
Pompeo on March 4 said that he was hopeful he could send a team to North Korea “in the next couple of weeks,” but there has been no sign of that.
Jenny Town, a North Korea expert at the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank, said that the content of the US document was not surprising.
“This is what Bolton wanted from the beginning and it clearly wasn’t going to work,” Town said. “If the US was really serious about negotiations they would have learned already that this wasn’t an approach they could take.”
“It’s already been rejected more than once, and to keep bringing it up ... would be rather insulting. It’s a nonstarter and reflects absolutely no learning curve in the process,” Town added.
North Korea has repeatedly rejected unilateral disarmament and has argued that its weapons program is needed for defense, a belief reinforced by the fate of Qaddafi and others.
In an interview on ABC Television’s This Week after the Hanoi summit, Bolton said that North Korea had committed to denuclearization in a variety of forms several times “that they have happily violated.”
“We define denuclearization as meaning the elimination of their nuclear weapons program, their uranium enrichment capability, their plutonium reprocessing capability,” Bolton said.
Asked who authored the document, Bolton said that it had been “written at staff level and cleared around as usual.”
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