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US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un

With a North Korea-US summit scheduled four days away on June 12 in Singapore, US President Donald Trump has been making several notable remarks. The most attention-grabbing of them all was his statement that US could sign a deal to end the Korean War. Obviously, this alone is not enough to say for certain just what his intentions are.

He could be referring to a possible declaration at the summit, or he could mean an official declaration at some future date after reaching some kind of an agreement in Singapore. While things seem to point more to the latter, what is clear in any event is Trump's commitment to normalizing Washington's relations with Pyongyang.

A declaration of the Korean War's end would hold a great deal of symbolic and political meaning anyway, but in terms of its great significance for guaranteeing Pyongyang's regime security, it can't come a moment too soon. It's the only way to assuage the North's fears for its regime and produce faster, practical results with denuclearization. Current events suggest the likelihood of South and North Korea making a joint declaration of the war's end at this summit is not great.

But with Trump alluding to possible second and third summits, it wouldn't be the worst thing if the three sides were to produce a declaration at the next one. What's clear is that the sooner a declaration comes, the likelier it is North Korea will speed up its denuclearization process.

Also notable are Trump's remarks about potentially inviting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the White House if the summit works out. A visit from Kim would be the first on American soil by a North Korean leader, representing another great stride toward normalizing North Korea-US relations. Trump's comments about his desire for normalized relations with the North are also significant. While he did attach the proviso that North Korean would have to complete the “necessary steps” first, the mere fact that Trump was talking about normalizing relations for the first time suggests preparations are pointing to substantive results from the Singapore summit.

Coming four days ahead of the summit, Trump's remarks show that he is strongly committed to normalizing North Korea-US relations, and that his focus has shifted over the course of various meetings to a “phase-in” approach to denuclearization. It looks like his attitude has become just that much more realistic. Even if the process is a realistic one, however, we cannot afford delays in North Korea's practical denuclearization. Needless to say, this means regime security measures from the US will also need to be actively pursued.

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