US sets timetable for North Korea to disarm

Pompeo reveals timetable for denuclearisation with ‘major, major disarmament’ by end of Trump’s first term

The US will demand “major, major disarmament” from North Korea by the end of Donald Trump’s presidential term, Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state has said. Mr Pompeo issued the first indication of a timetable for Pyongyang to disable its nuclear programme following the summit between Mr Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore. He said “understandings” had been reached that did not appear in the joint statement released after the meeting.

THE United States will demand that North Korea undertakes “major, major disarmament” of its nuclear programme by the end of Donald Trump’s first presidential term. Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, issued the first indication of a timetable for denuclearisation following the historic summit between Mr Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore.

A joint statement from the leaders reaffirmed North Korea’s commitment to “work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula” but gave no details of when Pyongyang would give up its weapons.

Mr Pompeo, speaking in Seoul, was asked if he would like to accomplish major nuclear disarmament within Mr Trump’s current term, which ends on Jan 20 2021. He said: “Most definitively. Absolutely. You used the term major, major disarmament, something like that? We’re hopeful that we can achieve that in the two-and-a-half years.”

He said “understandings” had been reached with North Korea that did not appear in the statement. He added: “I am confident they understand that there will be in-depth verification.”

The US secretary of state is due to visit Beijing today to brief Chinese leaders about the Singapore summit.

It came as Donald Trump yesterday told Americans they could “sleep well”, safe in the knowledge that there was “no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea”. In a series of triumphant Twitter posts as he flew home from Singapore, the US president hit out at “haters” who had doubted his strategy for dealing with Kim Jong-un.

Mr Trump said that, thanks to the agreement signed by both leaders at their summit, the US was “safer” than the day he took office.

However, critics questioned whether he was claiming victory too early, with Kim still holding a nuclear arsenal and given the North Korean regime’s untrustworthiness in the past. A glimpse of how North Korean citizens saw the summit was offered by the front pages of its main newspaper. Rodong Sinmun carried scores of pictures showing Kim shaking hands and smiling with Mr Trump. State media also reported that Kim had accepted the offer of a visit to the White House and Mr Trump had agreed to visit Pyongyang.

Mr Trump, who touched down in America yesterday after holding talks with Kim and his advisers for five hours, framed the summit as a breakthrough in a series of posts. “A year ago the pundits & talking heads … were begging for conciliation and peace – ‘please meet, don’t go to war.’ Now that we meet and have a great relationship with Kim Jong-un, the same haters shout out, ‘you shouldn’t meet, do not meet!’,” he wrote. “President Obama said that North Korea was our biggest and most dangerous problem. No longer – sleep well tonight!”

Mr Trump later added: “Just landed – a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.”