Sayeed Muhammad: North Korea and Iran will dominate this week’s gathering of world leaders at the United Nations for the 73rd annual general meeting, where President Donald Trump is expected be in focus as he keeps on upending upend global diplomacy.
After warming up to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and ditching the Iran nuclear deal, the US president will make his speech on Tuesday to face foes and increasingly uneasy allies at the UN General Assembly.
Trump, for the very first time on Wednesday, will preside over a Security Council meeting on non-proliferation and weapons of mass destruction that will focus heavily on Iran — likely triggering a clash with other big powers.
“It will be the most watched Security Council meeting ever,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley said narrating Trump’s first time wielding the gavel.
The diplomatic gathering will take stock of the thaw in relations between North and South Korea, and ground-breaking US-North Korea moves to address the threat from Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Last year, world leaders shuddered as Trump threatened to totally destroy North Korea, calling Kim as “Rocket Man on a suicide mission.”
An exchange of insults ensued, with Kim terming Trump “mentally deranged US dotard.”
Trump’s speech will be the “polar opposite of what we heard last year,” said Suzanne DiMaggio, an expert on North Korea and Iran at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He president will tout his face-to-face with Kim as a major diplomatic win but “he should think twice if he plans to repeat his claim that North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat,” she said.
Despite the Trump-Kim landmark summit in Singapore in June, there has been little concrete progress on denuclearization, with Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong ho invited by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for talks on the sidelines. Ri is scheduled to deliver his address on September 29.