CIA believes Kim won’t give up nukes, could allow burger chain
USING MCFORCE? North Korea’s other options could include US investments WASHINGTON:
North Korea is unlikely to give up its nuclear weapons stockpile any time soon but could offer to allow the launch of a western hamburger franchise in Pyongyang as a goodwill gesture, a CIA assessment has said.
An NBC report on the analysis, which aired on Tuesday, did not name the brand likely to get North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s nod. His other options could include American investments, especially in infrastructure.
A hamburger franchise will be an easy give. And, as NBC reminded its viewers, US President Donald Trump had expressed his desire in 2016 to talk peace with the North Korean leader while “eating a hamburger on a conference table”.
And the world is aware of Trump’s love of burgers – two at a time, pushed down by a chocolate shake for dinner, while campaigning.
According to the report, the CIA further says Kim might have wanted to have an establishment up and running by the time of the talks to ensure a steady supply of burgers to the delegations involved. But there would be no shortage of the delicacy in Singapore if the citystate does get to host the summit.
The US state department and intelligence agencies across the world are known to put together such assessments ahead of major diplomatic negotiations to explore and anticipate options likely to be touted by the other side. The intelligence assessment that Kim may not end the country’s nuclear programme is largely in accord with the assessment of North Korean watchers, who have cautioned against having high expectations.
“Everybody knows they are not going to denuclearise,” an official who had read the analysis told NBC News. The report was circulated earlier this month, said an intelligence official.
It was not clear when the assessment was put together and if it had traversed through the desk of CIA director Mike Pompeo, who took over his present job at the state department in the last week of April. He is the only Trump cabinet member to have met Kim.
The denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula — which essentially means getting rid of North Korean nukes — is a key demand for Trump. However, he has indicated willingness to consider a phased dismantling in recent days.
A Stanford University study has said it could take 15 years to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme. “We’re talking about dozens of sites, hundreds of buildings and thousands of people,” lead author Siegfried S Hecker told The New York Times. He said the key to dismantling the sprawling atomic complex, begun six decades ago, “is to establish a different relationship with North Korea where its security rests on something other than nuclear weapons”.
Kim has let it be known through multiple interlocutors that he is prepared to discuss denuclearisation. But there is a wide gap between the way that term is understood in Pyongyang and Washington, as reflected in the angry exchange over the US suggestion of the Libyan model.
In 2003, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi had agreed to discard his country’s nuclear weapons programme to gain relief from sanctions. Eight years later, in 2001, his government was toppled during the Arab Spring movement, which was supported by Nato bombing.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will visit North Korea on Thursday to hold talks with his counterpart Ri Yong Ho about the situation on the Korean peninsula.
Lavrov said the meeting, which will take place ahead of a possible summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, would help him understand North Korea’s position on the nuclear settlement.
“It will be very useful for me to understand how our North Korean neighbours relate to all issues (concerning the situation on the Korean peninsula),” Lavrov was quoted as saying by TASS.
Lavrov said he hoped the meeting between Kim and Trump would not degenerate into a trading of accusations.
“We support the changes happening now in relations between the two Koreas, between Pyongyang and Washington,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by RIA news agency. “We really hope these talks ... do not end up in ultimatums.”
MOSCOW: