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Biden rejects Trump’s approach to North Korea, says he won’t give Kim Jong-Un ‘international recognition’

  • President Joe Biden on Friday rejected his predecessor's approach to North Korea and its nuclear program.
  • Biden used the example of former President Donald Trump's high-profile meetings with Kim Jong-Un to illustrate what he, as president, would never do.
  • Biden also announced that the United States would provide 550,000 South Korean service members with Covid-19 vaccines.

U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in hold a joint news conference after a day of meetings at the White House, in Washington, U.S. May 21, 2021.Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday rejected his predecessor's approach to North Korea and said his goal as president was to achieve a "total denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking at a joint press conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Biden used the example of former President Donald Trump's high-profile meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to illustrate what he, Biden, would never do.

"If there was a commitment on which we met, then I would meet with [Kim]," said Biden. "And the commitment has to be that there is discussion about his nuclear arsenal."

"What I would not do is what has been done in the recent past," the president said. "I would not give him all he's looking for, international recognition as legitimate, and give him what allowed him to move in a direction of appearing to be more serious about what he wasn't at all serious about."

Trump held three high-profile meetings with Kim, one in Singapore in June of 2018, another in Hanoi the following February, and the last one in June of 2019. During their third meeting, Trump took several steps onto North Korean soil, becoming the first American president to do so.

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