Trump’s North Korea Summit Goal: Lock In the Steps to Denuclearization

To disprove skeptics, Kim Jong Un will have to go beyond Pyongyang’s recent unilateral gestures and agree to irrevocable actions

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are in very different places than when they first met in Singapore last year. WSJ explains how domestic and international forces may affect their positions at the negotiating table in Vietnam. Photo composite: Sharon Shi

WASHINGTON—President Trump will press North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to take his first irrevocable steps toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula when the two leaders meet this week for a second summit in less than a year.

A top U.S. goal is to persuade Pyongyang to freeze its nuclear weapons and missile programs while the two sides continue far-reaching talks encompassing denuclearization and punitive international sanctions.