Kim would likely keep building nuclear arsenal even after Trump summit, US expert says

Even if a summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un takes place, it remains unclear whether it would produce meaningful results in halting North Korea's nuclear buildup, a US expert has said.

Trump has recently signaled a strong desire to restart dialogue with Kim, expressing his intention to meet the North Korean leader before the end of this year.

Andrew Yeo, Korea chair at the Brookings Institution, said Thursday in written responses to Yonhap that he remains "skeptical that a summit-level meeting alone can secure firm commitments from Chairman Kim."

"Kim Jong-un could still continue to expand his nuclear arsenal even after meeting with President Trump," Yeo said. "The real test is whether a summit can lead to a sustained negotiation process with concrete and verifiable constraints."

Yeo assessed that freezing North Korea's nuclear and missile programs — rather than pursuing full denuclearization — may be a more realistic goal.

"A nuclear freeze or some form of risk-reduction agreement is far more realistic than complete denuclearization," he said. "Even a verifiable pause in the expansion of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs would be better than the status quo."

Trump recently referenced North Korea as possessing "57 nuclear weapons" but sidestepped questions about whether denuclearization remains the stated goal of renewed US-North Korea dialogue.

While North Korea has shown little reaction to Trump's decision to scale back joint US-South Korea military exercises, Yeo said the door to diplomacy remains open. "Kim Jong-un does not appear to harbor personal ill will toward Trump, so the door to diplomacy is still open," he said, suggesting a summit remains possible.

Earlier, Trump directed the Ministry of National Defense to sharply reduce joint military exercises, calling them a "hostile signal" to North Korea, and said North Korea had not been threatening and had behaved well during his presidency.

Yeo also raised concerns that Trump could make excessive concessions affecting peninsula security in order to bring about a summit.

"The US may attempt some concessions to bring Chairman Kim to the negotiating table," he said. "One concern is that President Trump makes too many concessions — such as unilaterally withdrawing US troops from the Korean Peninsula — without any commitment from North Korea to take de-escalatory measures."