No reward for North Korea without irreversible denuclearization – Pompeo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – North Korea should not expect rewards from talks with the United States (US) until it takes irreversible steps to give up its nuclear weapons, President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, said on Thursday.
Pompeo said the historical analysis was “not optimistic,” when asked at his Senate confirmation hearing if he believed North Korea would agree to dismantle its nuclear program. He said that in past negotiations the United States and the world had relaxed sanctions too quickly.
“It is the intention of the president and the administration not to do that this time to make sure that… before we provide rewards, we get the outcome permanently, irreversibly, that it is that we hope to achieve,” Pompeo said.
“It is a tall order, but I am hopeful that President Trump can achieve that through sound diplomacy,” he said.
Trump has said he plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in May or early June and hopes the discussions will ultimately lead to an end of North Korea’s nuclear weapons proSEOUL
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump plans to confer with senior military leaders Monday, after he threatened a “big price to pay'' for a suspected poison gas attack in Syria that killed women and children.
Trump was set to get a briefing and have dinner with military leaders. Monday is the first day on the job for his new national security adviser, John Bolton, who has previously advocated significant airstrikes against Syria.
The White House deliberations
WASHINGTON (AP) – In a striking reversal, President Donald Trump has asked trade officials to explore the possibility of the United States (US) rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, a free trade deal he pulled out of during his first days in office as part of his “America first” agenda.
Trump’s request comes as he faces pressure from farm-state Republicans anxious that his protectionist trade policies could spiral into a trade war with China that would hit rural America. Trump spent the 2016 presidential campaign ripping into the multi-national pact, saying he could gram, which Washington sees as its most pressing security threat.
On Thursday, Trump said meetings were being set up between him and Kim and said the United States would approach the talks respectfully.
He thanked China for its help in trying came as Russia and the Syrian military blamed Israel for a pre-dawn missile attack on a major air base in central Syria, saying Israeli fighter jets launched the missiles from Lebanon's air space. A war-monitoring group said the airstrikes killed 14 people, including Iranians active in Syria.
Syria's state news agency SANA initially said the attack on the T4 air base was likely “an American aggression,'' but Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood quickly denied the get a better deal for US businesses by negotiating one-on-one with countries in the Pacific Rim. Now, faced with political consequences of the action, Trump appears to be reconsidering.
“Last year, the president kept his promise to end the TPP deal negotiated by the Obama Administration because it was unfair to American workers and farmers,” the White House said in a statement. The president assigned his top trade advisers, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his new chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, “to take another look at whether or not a better deal could be negotiated.” to resolve the crisis over North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons capable of hitting the United States. “They’ve been really terrific at helping us get to some kind of settlement,” Trump said.
“Meetings are being set up right now between myself and Kim Jong Un. I think it will be terrific. I think we’ll go in with a lot of respect and we’ll see what happens,” he said.
Trump also said trade “negotiations” between Washington and Beijing were going well, conflicting with China’s statements since the president’s announcements of plans to impose billions of dollars of tariffs on Chinese goods, which have fed fears of an all-out trade war.
“We are getting along very well, think we’re going to do some great things,” Trump said, adding that getting rid of nuclear weapons was “very good for them, good for everybody.”
Pompeo said he was optimistic a course could be set at the Trump-Kim summit for a diplomatic outcome with North Korea, but added that no one was under any illusion that a comprehensive deal could be reached at that meeting. United States was behind the strike and the agency then dropped the accusation, blaming Israel instead.
Saturday's suspected poison gas attack took place in a rebel-held town near Damascus amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce. Syrian activists, rescuers and medics said the attack in Douma killed at least 40 people, with families found suffocated in their houses and shelters. The reports could not immediately be independently verified.
Officials in Washington worked Sunday to verify the claim by Syrian opposition activists and rescuers that the Assad government was responsible.
Trump first disclosed his request Thursday to a group of lawmakers at a White House meeting on trade. Lawmakers have been pressing Trump to shift course after escalating trade threats, including China’s plan to slap tariffs on soybeans and other US crops.
The apparent decision comes after the 11 other TPP countries went ahead last month and signed the pact in Santiago, Chile — without the United States. The agreement is meant to establish freer trade in the Asia-Pacific region and put pressure on China to open its markets to compete with and perhaps eventually join the bloc.