North Korea wants Trump to sign a permanent peace treaty

North Korean leaders think they have done enough to uphold their end of the denuclearization bargain, and want President Trump to take the next "bold move."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants a permanent peace plan from the U.S. before he is willing to move forward in denuclearization talks, an official told CNN on Monday. Until Trump replaces the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War, Kim doesn't want to continue negotiating the denuclearization process that began when he met with Trump in Singapore last month.

The official said that North Korea thinks it has already done "so much," like halting nuclear missile testing and destroying one nuclear testing site. Before moving on to any further steps, Kim wants to ensure that his regime will stay in place. Any peace treaty would require a two-thirds approving vote from the Senate, reports CNN.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Kim additionally wants Trump to lift economic sanctions, but Trump has said that he is in no rush to appease North Korea. "We have no time limit. We have no speed limit," he said last week. "We're just going through the process. But the relationships are very good." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also said that he doesn't want to give in to North Korea's demands, but has insisted that the vague agreement that Kim and Trump signed in Singapore will lead to denuclearization in North Korea. Trump on Monday pushed back against claims that he is frustrated with the speed of negotiations with Kim, tweeting that "all of Asia is happy" and that he specifically is "very happy!" Read more at CNN.