Asia

US Troop Removal From Korea Up for Talks With Allies, N. Korea – Mattis

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Withdrawing US troops from the Korean Peninsula would be discussed with allies if North Korea demanded it as part of reaching a peace agreement, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said during a meeting with Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak at the Pentagon.
Sputnik

"Well, that's part of the issues that we'll be discussing in the negotiations with our allies first and, of course, with North Korea," the release said on Friday.

North Korea's Leader Kim Jong-un Meets South Korea's President Moon Jae-in
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are scheduled to meet in May or early June regarding the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Both leaders will enter negotiations to permanently shut down the North Korea’s nuclear program.

The United States had engaged in a maximum pressure campaign against North Korea and led the international community to impose multiple rounds of sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Earlier on Friday, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a summit at the Demilitarized Zone where they signed the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification on the Korean Peninsula. The document commits the two countries to a nuclear-free peninsula and talks to bring a formal end to the Korean War.

The situation on the Korean peninsula escalated in the past two years due to North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests, which led to heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang.

Discuss