WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump's summit with Kim Jong Un offered a small ray of hope that North Korea might ease its nuclear threat. But left untouched in the talks was Kim's arsenal of chemical weapons, an omission that baffles some security analysts, given that Pyongyang stands accused of using such armaments and sharing the technology with Syria.
At their summit in Singapore last week, Trump and Kim signed a joint statement declaring their commitment to "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." The statement did not mention North Korea's suspected stockpile of VX, sarin and other chemical and biological weapons.
Administration officials said that chemical weapons will become part of the dialogue with North Korea. A senior administration official said Monday there are several U.N. Security Council resolutions that require North Korea to eliminate all of its weapons of mass destruction. "Those resolutions were unanimously passed and are binding. North Korea must fulfill these obligations," the official said.
