US to enforce sanctions after nuke talks fail
TOKYO: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday brushed aside North Korea’s accusation of “gangster-like” denuclearisation demands.
Pompeo maintained that his third visit to the country had produced results, but also vowed that sanctions would remain until Pyongyang followed through on North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s pledge to get rid of his atomic weapons.
Pompeo downplayed a harshly critical North Korean statement after the talks in which the country’s Foreign Ministry bashed hopes for a quick deal and attacked the US for making what it called unreasonable and extortionate demands aimed at forcing it to abandon nuclear weapons.
The statement was sure to fuel growing scepticism in the US and elsewhere over how serious Kim is about giving up his nuclear arsenal.
“If those requests were gangster-like, the world is a gangster,” Pompeo said, noting that numerous UN Security Council resolutions have demanded that the North rid itself of nuclear weapons and end its ballistic missile programme.
“People are going to make certain comments after meetings. If I paid attention to the press, I’d go nuts, and I refuse to do that.”
Speaking after meeting his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Tokyo, Pompeo said his two days of talks in Pyongyang had been productive and conducted in good faith. But following the stinging commentary from the North, he allowed that the goal of denuclearisation would be difficult, and that much work remained.
“The road ahead will be difficult and challenging, and we know critics will try to minimise the work we have achieved,” he said.
He added that his two days of talks with senior North Korean officials had “made progress”, and included a “detailed and substantive discussion about the next steps towards a fully verified and complete denuclearisation”.
Pompeo sought to dispel suggestions that the Trump administration had backed down from demanding the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of the North’s nuclear weapons.
He said North Korea understood that denuclearisation had to be “fully verified” and “final”.
Despite what he described as progress, Pompeo said the results so far did not warrant any easing of sanctions, which he said would be enforced “with vigour” until North Korea followed through with denuclearisation.
After his historic summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore last month, President Donald Trump declared that the North was no longer a threat.
Yet, three weeks later, the two sides were still divided on all the issues, including exactly what denuclearisation means and how it might be verified.