According to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, the unidentified administrator of the official Paekhwawon guesthouse in Pyongyang was found guilty of corruption after the ruling Workers' Party's Organization and Guidance Department conducted a raid on his property in October, on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's orders. Unlike past cost-sharing deals, which lasted multiple years, the new agreement would only be for one year, forcing negotiators to hammer out a new pact in the coming months, it added. "That is, we think it is unlikely that North Korea will give up all of its nuclear weapons or production capabilities, but seeks to negotiate partial denuclearization in exchange for United States and global concessions", he said.
The disagreement had raised the prospect that Trump could decide to withdraw at least some troops from South Korea, as he has in other countries like Syria. Since the summit, Pyongyang has not tested any nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles. Their first summit in Singapore last June resulted in Kim's vague commitment to "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula", a term that his propaganda machine previously used when it argued it would only denuclearize after the USA withdraws its troops from South Korea.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and Timothy Betts, acting Deputy Assistant Secretary and Senior Advisor for Security Negotiations and Agreements in the U.S. Department of State, talk during their meeting at Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, February 10, 2019. The two sides had also difficulty on the final amount, as the Trump administration reportedly demanded an annual sum of around one billion dollars when the negotiations were close to an end late past year.