On June 12, 2018 ASPI President Kevin Rudd spoke with CNBC about what the U.S.-North Korea summit has achieved, and China’s interests in the summit. Observers may “mourn about the lack of detail in the text to the actual agreement” Trump and Kim signed. However, Rudd argues that Trump deserves “some credit” because “his unique style” has enabled a step forward in peace talks, when just six months ago there was a “real possibility of conflict and even war.”

Rudd comments that the next steps towards verified denuclearization will be most critical and suggests that “the logical place” to begin is with North Korea’s missiles, particularly its ICBMs.

Rudd observes that China will be “pretty happy” with the summit outcome, because it meets their strategic interests of preventing conflict on the Korean peninsula, having U.S. troops withdrawn from South Korea, and keeping the two Koreas divided. Rudd also states that, based on China’s signals, it is also “pretty happy” about the ‘influence’ it has on Kim. (4 min. 26 sec.)

Watch the interview on Bloomberg.