Secretary of state aims to put pressure on Kim
Pompeo seeks solid pledge on nukes on trip to North Korea
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was traveling to North Korea on Thursday to press ruler Kim Jong Un on his stated willingness to disarm his nuclear arsenal, amid reports that Kim actually is expanding the program.
The visit Friday will be Pompeo’s third to Pyongyang, the capital, in three months, but the first since President Donald Trump held a high-profile summit with Kim in Singapore last month. Trump came away saying he trusted Kim to carry through with a promise that the two leaders put in writing to “work toward” denuclearization.
Evidence since then has raised questions about Kim’s intentions, stoking skepticism born of years of North Korea’s broken promises. Pompeo hopes to get answers and a firmer commitment from the young dictator, his aides said, but many within U.S. intelligence, defense and diplomatic agencies cautioned against taking Kim at his word.
North Korea has violated every previous nuclear agreement, reached between Kim’s father and Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Two U.S. officials familiar with intelligence assessments, who would not be identified in discussing classified information, said that North Korea intends to hold on to at least a portion of its nuclear arsenal and continue production of long-range ballistic missiles.
The assessments are at odds with Trump’s claim, upon his return from Singapore, that Pyongyang no longer poses a nuclear threat.
Kim could still decide to give up a portion of his stockpile, which is estimated to include as many as 60 nuclear devices, in return for security guarantees from the United States, the officials said.
But there is evidence, they added, that he is taking steps to conceal parts of his stockpile and production facilities, intending to preserve a nuclear weapon capability that Kim views as the ultimate guarantor of his dynasty’s survival.
That would confirm what experts on North Korea, including many diplomats and intelligence officers who have dealt with the isolated country, predicted would be Kim’s plan of action.
“There is no sign that Kim has changed his view that possessing a nuclear capability is his best insurance,” said one of the officials.
The classified assessments raise doubts about administration claims that the Trump-Kim summit set the two adversaries on a path toward elimination of North Korea’s nuclear program.
Trump has defended the negotiations with Kim, insisting in a tweet Tuesday that his administration was having “many good conversations with North Korea — it is going well!” and noting that Kim had not carried out “Rocket Launches or Nuclear Testing in 8 months.”
Yet operations at North Korean facilities used to produce nuclear bombs and missiles have continued at least at levels seen before the Singapore summit, according to analyses of recent satellite photos by multiple private researchers.
“All is not going well,” Abraham Denmark, a former Pentagon official during the Obama administration, tweeted in response to Trump’s boast. “There have been several recent reports that NK continues to work on its nuclear and ballistic missile infrastructure. The fact that all of this activity in no way violates the agreement from Singapore shows what a bad deal it was.”
Trump, in comments to reporters Thursday as he flew to a political rally in Montana, again took credit for some success and went so far as to claim that his predecessor was close to war with North Korea.
“You can ask President Obama, he was very close to going to war and he would have lost 50 million people-plus,” Trump said. He also hailed his “good chemistry” with Kim. “I shook his hand,” he said, adding, “I really believe that he sees a different future for North Korea.”
Pompeo had been expected to bring to Pyongyang a more detailed plan to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear stockpile and longrange missiles within a year. The statement that Trump and Kim signed in Singapore contained no details, and Pompeo’s mission is to work those out.