When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday the world will have a single overriding interest: How will they address North Korea’s decades-long pursuit of nuclear-armed missiles? And the North’s call for “the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” has been linked to a demand for the withdrawal of the 28,500 US troops in South Korea. US officials have said they want complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament by North Korea. The North already likely has the technology to mount atomic warheads on shorter-range missiles targeting South Korea and Japan. And Moon would have to choose whether to risk undermining ties with Washington by continuing to improve ties with North Korea.

Source: Egypt Independent April 23, 2018 01:30 UTC