US offers denuclearisation carrot
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has offered economic help to impoverished North Korea if it gives up its nuclear weapons, as the two countries prepare for a historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
A day after returning from a trip to Pyongyang, Pompeo said yesterday he had held ‘‘good’’ and ‘‘substantive’’ conversations with Kim during his visit, during which he secured the release of three Americans who had been detained in North Korea.
In a joint news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, Pompeo offered a glimpse of what US-North Korean relations could look like if they succeed in reaching a nuclear accord.
‘‘If North Korea takes bold action to quickly denuclearise, the United States is prepared to work with North Korea to achieve prosperity on the par with our South Korean friends,’’ Pompeo said.
Since Trump announced plans to hold a summit with Kim, questions have been raised continually about whether the two leaders have the same objective in mind when they speak about ‘‘denuclearisation’’.
To the US, it means the North giving up the nuclear weapons it has already built. But North Korea has said it is willing to talk now because it has succeeded in becoming a nuclear-armed state, fuelling skepticism over whether it would truly being willing to give those weapons up.
Pompeo said there would need to be ‘‘complete’’ and ‘‘verifiable’’ denuclearisation, suggesting it would involve inspections to ensure the North’s compliance.
‘‘I think there is complete agreement about what the ultimate objectives are,’’ Pompeo said, though he declined to offer more detail.
Kang praised the upcoming meeting between Trump and Kim as a ‘‘historic’’ opportunity, but added a few notes of skepticism as well.
Amid concerns that North Korea will demand the US withdraw its troops from South Korea, Kang emphasised that the US military presence there must be ‘‘a matter for the US-ROK alliance first and foremost’’, using an acronym for South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
She said the US troop presence in the South for the past 65 years had played a ‘‘crucial role for deterrence’’, peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, she said, any change in the size of the US forces in South Korea should not be on the table at the summit.
‘‘The next few weeks will be critical, requiring airtight coordination between our two countries,’’ Kang said.
The US aspired to have North Korea as a ‘‘close partner’’ and not an enemy, Pompeo said, noting that the US had often in history become good friends with former adversaries.
He said his talks with Kim been ‘‘warm,’’ ‘‘constructive’’ ‘‘good’’.
‘‘We had good conversations about the histories of our two nations, the challenges that we have had between us,’’ Pompeo said. ‘‘We talked about the fact that America has often in history had adversaries who we are now close partners with, and our hope that we could achieve the same with respect to North Korea.’’
He did not mention the other adversaries by name, but Pompeo and others have often noted that the US played a major role in rebuilding Japan and the European Axis powers in the wake of World War II.
Mike Pompeo
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