US says N Korea must earn end to sanctions
Kim Jong un must dismantle his entire nuclear weapons programme before the United States makes any concessions to North Korea, John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, told TV viewers yesterday.
As the White House tried to temper expectations for a summit between the two leaders, Bolton was asked by Fox News whether Trump would withhold conciliatory offers until Kim got rid of all North Korea’s nuclear weapons, fuel and ballistic missiles.
‘‘Yes, I think that’s what denuclearisation means,’’ he replied.
Trump has said that the summit – the first to be held between a North Korean leader and an American president – will take place in ‘‘three or four weeks’’.
Speaking to supporters in Macomb County, Michigan, on Sunday, Mr Trump took full credit for last week’s diplomatic breakthrough on the Kor- ean peninsula.
Mocking news broadcasts that queried the extent of his role in bringing Kim to the bargaining table, he asked, in newscaster mode, ‘‘What do you think President Trump had to do with it?’’ before answering: ‘‘I’ll tell you what. How about everything.’’
His supporters responded with loud chants of ‘‘Nobel!’’
Hopes for the Trump-Kim summit were boosted by news from South Korea that Kim had invited the world to watch the dismantling of the North’s nuclear facilities in May.
Chinese scientists had reported earlier that the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast of North Korea, carved out of the 2190-metrehigh Mt Mantap, had been rendered unusable after part of the mountain collapsed during the regime’s most recent nuclear test in September.
Scepticism lingers in some quarters over North Korea’s willingness to rid itself of its hard-won nuclear capability. Kim and President Moon vowed to denuclearise the peninsula when they emerged from their Friday summit in the border truce village of Panmunjom but no timetable has been announced.
The North Korean issue formed a large part of Trump’s speech in Michigan when, for the second year in a President Donald Trump row, he decided to skip the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington.
He told Sunday night’s audience that he would push Kim to ‘‘denuke’’ fully, adding: ‘‘It is going to be a very important meeting: the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. We’ll be doing the world a big favour.’’
Relishing the prospect of striking a deal that could define his presidency, Trump specified that ‘‘strength will keep us out of nuclear war’’ and said that he was prepared to walk away from negotiations if he wasn’t getting what he wanted. - The Times