5/29/2018

NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Any diplomatic agreement in which North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear weapons could take as long as 10 years to implement, according to a new analysis from former US officials. The assessment, released Monday [5-28-18] by experts at Stanford University, comes as the White House is trying to verify how committed North Korea is to denuclearization and how it could be achieved, ahead of a potential summit between the two leaders…The trio identified 22 specific programs or activities — such as the country’s nuclear weapons stockpile, its missile arsenal or its nuclear reprocessing facilities — that US negotiators need to address with North Korea. Halting or suspending many of these will likely take less than a year, the authors estimate, but eliminating or setting limits on them will take six to 10 years. Last week, US President Donald Trump abruptly canceled his planned Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in part due to concerns on whether Pyongyang was willing to agree to what’s known as CVID — complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of the country’s nuclear program.”

-Joshua Berlinger, “North Korea denuclearization could take a decade, experts say,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 29, 2018 2:58 am