VOA慢速英语--Trump: ‘We’ll Have to See,’ about Meeting with Kim

 

United States President Donald Trump¹ said, “We’ll have to see,” when asked if a planned meeting with North Korea’s leader will take place.

On Wednesday, North Korea threatened to cancel the meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12. It said North Korea is not interested in “one-sided” negotiations² only meant to cause the North to give up its nuclear weapons.

North Korea’s Vice³ Foreign Minister Kim Kye Kwan released the statement on the state-run KCNA news agency.

He also criticized comments from U.S. National Security Advisor⁴ John Bolton. In April, Bolton called for the North to give up its nuclear and missile weapons like Libya. He told Fox News, "We have very much in mind the Libya model.”

The U.S. removed sanctions on Libya in exchange for a promise to give up its nuclear program in 2003. Eight years later, Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown⁵ and killed by rebels. That was shortly before Kim Jong Un became North Korea’s leader.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke⁶ to South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa. He told Kang that the U.S. continues to prepare for the meeting.

Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un recently to discuss issues including the planned meeting with Trump. On Sunday, Pompeo said that the U.S. would lift sanctions on North Korea if it agreed to completely end its nuclear program.

Kim Dong-yub is a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies. He told the Associated Press the North is not trying to undermine the Trump-Kim talks. The North’s reaction, he said, is more like a “complaint over Trump’s way of playing the good cop and bad cop game with Pompeo and Bolton.”

Others wonder whether the North’s latest comments are an effort to negotiate from a stronger position. After all, North Korea has had a long history of withdrawing from agreements on its nuclear and missile activities.

A short history of North Korea’s nuclear negotiations

In 1991, the United States announced that it would remove its nuclear weapons from South Korea as part of an arms reduction treaty with the Soviet⁷ Union.

The following year, North and South Korea agreed to ban nuclear weapons or efforts to develop them. The nations said they would seek nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes.

In 1993, North Korea rejected international nuclear inspectors⁸ and said it might withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. As a result, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited North Korea which then promised to freeze its nuclear program in 1994. But, later that year, North Korean leader Kim Il-sung died and his son, Kim Jong Il took power.

In 1999, North Korea suspended testing long-distance missiles in exchange for an easing of some sanctions put in place by the U.S.

Then came a period of good feeling in which high-level North Korean officials met with U.S. and South Korean officials.

The feeling, however, began to change when President George W. Bush accused North Korea of being part of “an axis⁹ of evil” in 2001. The following year, North Korea admitted that it had a secret uranium enrichment program. In 2003, the North withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Later that year, the Six Party Talks became an effort by all nations in the area to deal with the North Korean nuclear issue. The group included the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the U.S. Tension, however, increased as North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon in 2006.

The Six Party talks also broke down in 2008 and have not been restarted since then. Officials could not reach agreement on methods to prove the North was carrying out its requirements to end its nuclear program.

In 2011, Kim Jong Un became North Korea’s leader after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il. North Korea agreed to suspend its nuclear activities in exchange for aid. But the deal ended with North Korea’s test of a long-distance rocket.

U.S. efforts at diplomacy¹⁰ entered a period of what has been called “strategic patience.” Under this policy, the U.S. and its partners have increased sanctions on North Korea in an effort to get it to return to negotiations.

During this period, however, North Korea has carried out four nuclear tests including one in 2017 which, the North claims, was a hydrogen bomb.

In addition to its nuclear tests, North Korea has tested long-distance missiles with ever-increasing range over the last two years.

With the most recent launch last fall, North Korea tested a missile said to be able to reach all of the continental¹¹ U.S.

I’m Mario Ritter.

Words in This Story

sanctions –n. actions taken against a country to cause it to obey international law usually by restricting trade

undermine –v. to make something or someone weaker or less effective

complaint –n. a statement showing unhappiness or dissatisfaction

Nonproliferation –n. activities aimed at keeping the numbers of something from increasing

enrichment –n. the process of improving the quality of something such as the purity of a mineral

strategic –adj. related to a long term plan

range –n. a specific distance, a distance that something can travel

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

5 overthrown   

adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词

参考例句：

• The president was overthrown in a military coup. 总统在军事政变中被赶下台。
• He has overthrown the basic standards of morality. 他已摒弃了基本的道德标准。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

8 inspectors   

n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官

参考例句：

• They got into the school in the guise of inspectors. 他们假装成视察员进了学校。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Inspectors checked that there was adequate ventilation. 检查员已检查过，通风良好。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 axis   

n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线

参考例句：

• The earth's axis is the line between the North and South Poles.地轴是南北极之间的线。
• The axis of a circle is its diameter.圆的轴线是其直径。

10 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

11 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。