"2차 북미정상회담에서 '빅딜' 이끌어낼 가능성 낮다"
Staying with the second Kim-Trump summit set to take place in a matter of weeks.
While anticipation builds as to what kind of results the two leaders could produce, some experts are skeptical the talks will lead to some form of a breakthrough.
Kan Hyeong-woo shares with us their views.
Considering how historic the first summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump seemed last June, there's been remarkably little progress since then towards the North's denuclearization.
With only about 20 days left until their second meeting, and talks ongoing to narrow their differences,... experts say it might be too much to expect what people are calling a "big deal."
"So at this time, it's already February, and we are expecting the summit at the end of February so there's physically not enough time for the working-level negotiations to prescribe all the details for the summit."
Instead, the summit's biggest achievement might be both Kim and Trump officially announcing that the two sides will continue to negotiate at the working level to achieve the regime's final and fully verified denuclearization.
Other experts point out that the two leaders would face a lot of criticism if they only come out with a "small deal,"... so they might shoot for concrete deliverables in the limited time they have.
"You know,... the two countries' two leaders are under pressure about making a big deal. We will see how it goes. It doesn't look very easy, but they are under pressure. So I think a possibility is still there."
Pyeongyang wants the sanctions on it to be lifted,... but Washington insists that won't happen until North Korea produces a complete list of its nuclear weapons facilities and commits to dismantle all of them under international supervision.
So unless there's real progress being made now, the second summit between Kim and Trump could end up being a 'lose-lose' situation.
Kan Hyeong-woo, Arirang News.
