US lawmakers want Trump to report on North Korea nuclear programme

WASHINGTON: Republican and Democratic members of the US House of Representatives introduced a bill on Wednesday that would require President Donald Trump’s administration to provide a detailed report on North Korea’s nuclear programme to set a ‘baseline’ for progress on talks with Pyongyang.

The bill, seen by Reuters before its public release, is one of a series of efforts by members of Congress to have some say in negotiations ahead of Trump’s summit next week in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The ‘North Korea Nuclear Baseline Act’ was introduced by Representative Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as lawmakers including Republican Representative Mike McCaul, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and a senior member of the foreign affairs panel.

It would require the administration to transmit to congressional national security committees within 60 days of its enactment a report on the status of North’s nuclear programme.

The report would need to include the location of the country’s nuclear weapons and nuclear weapon research, development and production facilities, as well as the location of its ballistic missiles and facilities producing ballistic missiles.

Lawmakers would also ask that the report be updated and re-transmitted every 180 days. — Reuters