Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said that the outcome of this week’s summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un underlines the complexity of the issues to be resolved on the Korean Peninsula.
The summit in Hanoi concluded last night without an agreement, but with the expectation of further meetings in the future.
“The conflict on the Korean Peninsula has been unresolved for decades,” Mr Peters said.
“We have welcomed the initiative of President Trump and Chairman Kim to engage in summit meetings this week in Hanoi, and the earlier meeting in Singapore in June 2018.
“This process has succeeded in reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and has replaced missile and nuclear tests with diplomacy and dialogue.
“We shouldn’t expect this process to deliver quick results. This week’s summit underlines that negotiating the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea is complicated.
“We need to be realistic about the time it will take to make progress towards building a lasting and stable peace on the Korean Peninsula. That said, denuclearisation remains steadfastly our goal,” Mr Peters said.
