President Trump’s North Korea Summits Gave Kim Jong Un ‘de Facto Nuclear State Status,’ Ban Ki-moon Says

Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that Kim Jong Un played to President Donald Trump’s “ego and penchant for pageantry” during their three one-on-one high-profile summits in 2018 and 2019, and that the North Korean leader “seems to have succeeded in acquiring de facto nuclear state status.” Ban’s comments come amid escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula, as South Korean officials said Tuesday that North Korea had blown up a joint liaison office, located near the border and designed to facilitate better communication between the two countries. In an interview during Wednesday’s TIME100 Talks, Ban said that he was “very worried” about ongoing missile tests in...