Bolton: Year plan for North Korea
Trump adviser says US has schedule for denuclearisation
The United States has a plan that would lead to the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes in a year, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said yesterday, a day after US intelligence reported signs that Pyongyang doesn’t intend to fully give up its arsenal.
John Bolton said top US diplomat Mike Pompeo will be discussing that plan with North Korea in the near future. Bolton added that it would be to the North’s advantage to co-operate to see sanctions lifted quickly and aid from South Korea and Japan start to flow.
Bolton’s remarks on Face the Nation appeared to be the first time the Trump Administration had publicly suggested a timeline for North Korea to fulfil the commitment leader Kim Jong Un made at a summit with Trump last month for the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula.
Despite Trump’s rosy post-summit declaration that the North no longer poses a nuclear threat, Washington and Pyongyang have yet to negotiate the terms under which it would relinquish the weapons that it developed over decades to deter the US.
Doubts over North Korea’s intentions have deepened amid reports that it is continuing to produce fissile material for weapons.
The Washington Post on Sunday cited unnamed US intelligence officials as concluding that North Korea does not intend to fully surrender its nuclear stockpile.
Evidence collected since the June 12 summit in Singapore points to preparations to deceive the US about the number of nuclear warheads in North Korea’s arsenal as well as the existence of undisclosed facilities used to make fissile material for nuclear bombs, according to the report.
It said the findings support a new, previously undisclosed Defence Intelligence Agency estimate that North Korea is unlikely to denuclearise. Some aspects of the new intelligence were reported on Sunday by NBC News.
A US official told the Associated Press that the Post’s report was accurate and that the assessment reflected the consistent view across US government agencies for the past several weeks. The official was not authorised to comment publicly on the matter and requested anonymity.
Bolton yesterday declined to comment on intelligence matters.
He said the Administration was well aware of North Korea’s track record over the decades in dragging out negotiations with the US to continue weapons development.
“We have developed a programme. I’m sure that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be discussing this with the North Koreans in the near future about really how to dismantle all of their WMD and ballistic missile programmes in a year,” Bolton said.
“If they have the strategic decision already made to do that, and they’re co-operative, we can move very quickly,” he added.
He said the one-year programme the US is proposing would cover all of the North’s chemical and biological weapons, nuclear programmes and ballistic missiles.
Even if North Korea is willing to co-operate, dismantling its secretive weapons of mass destruction programmes, believed to encompass dozens of sites, will be tough. Stanford University academics, including nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker, a leading expert on the North’s nuclear programme, have proposed a 10-year roadmap for that task. Others say it could take less time.
Pompeo has already visited Pyongyang twice since April to meet with Kim — the first time when he was still director of the CIA — and there are discussions about a possible third trip to North Korea late next week but such a visit has not yet been confirmed.
Trump reiterated in an interview broadcast yesterday that he thinks Kim is serious about denuclearisation.
“I made a deal with him. I shook hands with him. I really believe he means it,” the President said on Fox News.
Trump defended his decision to suspend “war games” with close ally South Korea — a significant concession to North Korea, which so far has suspended nuclear and missile tests and destroyed tunnels at its nuclear test site but not taken further concrete steps to denuclearise.
“Now we’re saving a lot of money,” Trump said of the cancellation of largescale military drills that involve flights of US bombers from the Pacific US territory of Guam.
“So we gave nothing. What we are going to give is good things in the future.
“And by the way, I really believe North Korea has a tremendous future. I got along really well with Chairman Kim. We had a great chemistry,” Trump added.
Pressure will now be on Pompeo to make progress in negotiations with North Korea to turn the summit declaration into concrete action. He spoke with the foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea in recent days about the situation with the North, according to the State Department, which has declined to comment on any upcoming travel.
Pompeo postponed plans to meet with Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and their counterparts from India on July 6, citing unavoidable circumstances, which has fuelled speculation he will make a third trip to Pyongyang.