WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States is offering assurances to North Korea[1]’s Kim Jong Un[2] as it seeks to put in motion the potential for a sweeping nuclear deal ahead of President Donald Trump’s upcoming summit with the North Korean leader.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo[3] said the U.S. will need to “provide security assurances” to Kim[4] if they’re able to forge an agreement. Pompeo[5] met with Kim[6] last week in North Korea[7], helping set the stage for Trump’s historic meeting with Kim[8] in Singapore on June 12.
Trump has set an ambitious goal for North Korea[9] to get rid of its nuclear weapons in a permanent and verifiable way. In return, the U.S. is willing to help the impoverished nation strengthen its economy.
Pompeo[10] was asked on “Fox News Sunday” whether the U.S. was in effect telling Kim[11] he could stay in power if he met the U.S. demands. Pompeo[12] said: “We will have to provide security assurances, to be sure.”
The top U.S. diplomat did not elaborate, but his comment could refer to the type of assurances North Korea[13] has sought in the past. A statement issued during international negotiations with North Korea[14] in 2005 over its nuclear weapons development said the “United States affirmed that it has no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade (North Korea[15]) with nuclear or conventional weapons.”
The North has said it needs nuclear weapons to counter what it believes is a U.S. effort to strangle its economy and overthrow the Kim government.
“Make no mistake about it, America’s interest here is preventing the risk that North Korea[16] will launch a nuclear weapon into L.A. or Denver or to the very place we’re sitting here this morning,” Pompeo[17] said from Washington. “That’s our objective, that’s the end state the president has laid out and that’s the mission that he sent me on this past week, to put us on the trajectory to go achieve that.”
Pressed in a separate interview on whether the U.S. would seek regime change, Pompeo[18] said “only time will tell how these negotiations will proceed.”
“The president uses language that says ‘we’ll see,’” Pompeo[19] told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” ”The American leadership under President Trump has its eyes wide open.”...
North Korea[20] said Saturday that all of the tunnels at the country’s northeastern nuclear test site will be destroyed by explosion in less than two weeks, ahead of Kim[21]’s summit with Trump. Observation and research facilities and ground-based guard units will also be removed, the North said. Pompeo