‘Sanctions stay till denuclearisation’

SEOUL: Tough sanctions will remain on North Korea until its complete denuclearisation, the United States secretary of state yesterday said, contradicting the North’s view that the process agreed at this week’s summit would be phased and reciprocal.

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued a joint statement after their Singapore meeting that reaffirmed the North’s commitment to “work towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”, while Trump “committed to provide security guarantees”.

Trump later told a news conference he would end joint USSouth Korean military exercises.

“President Trump has been incredibly clear about the sequencing of denuclearisation and relief from the sanctions,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said after meeting South Korea’s president and Japan’s foreign minister here.

“We are going to get complete denuclearisation. Only then will there be relief from sanctions.”

North Korean state media reported on Wednesday that Jongun and Trump had recognised the principle of “step-by-step and simultaneous action” to achieve peace and denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula.

The summit statement provided no details on when North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons programme or how the dismantling might be verified.