CIA chief skeptical of NKorean denuclearization
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The CIA director said Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will not give up his nuclear weapons easily, seeing them as crucial leverage to preserve his government.
In rare public remarks, Gina Haspel, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said that North Korea has spent decades building its weapons program, and she noted that the government in Pyongyang had said it was “essential to their regime’s survival.”
Haspel’s remarks echo the skepticism of former CIA officers, who are said to believe that North Korea will be reluctant to give up weapons as a part of negotiations with the United States.
The Trump administration has embarked on highprofile negotiations aimed Haspel at getting Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. President Donald Trump had a summit with Kim in Singapore in June, and since then has tried to reduce tensions with North Korea.
Haspel was careful to say the dialogue begun by Trump had improved the situation with North Korea. She said Kim wants to better the economic situation in his country, and that the CIA is working to support Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Haspel’s predecessor as head of the agency.
“I do think sitting here today in 2018 that we are in a better place than we were in 2017 because of the dialogue we have established between our leaders, the President and Chairman Kim Jong Un,” Haspel said during remarks at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center.
Unsurprisingly, Haspel was careful with her remarks about the president, keeping her comments apolitical but supportive of the administration’s stated priorities.
Haspel used her remarks to outline her priorities at the agency, including improving diversity among the ranks of CIA officers and investing more in filling intelligence gaps — especially for potential nation-state adversaries by stationing more officers overseas and investing more in language training.
She also said the CIA is trying to do more on overseas counternarcotics efforts, adding that drugs have killed more people than terrorists have.