‘Powerful’ sanctions remain: US

WASHINGTON: The White House said yesterday its policy of tough sanctions on North Korea had not changed, days after US President Donald Trump said he no longer wanted to use the phrase ‘‘maximum pressure’’ to describe the campaign to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

After meeting a senior official from North Korea at the White House on Saturday, Trump said North Korea was being more cooperative and that although sanctions would remain in place, he would hold off on imposing new ones.

He said he did not want to use the term ‘‘maximum pressure’’ any more, because the two sides were ‘‘getting along’’.

Asked yesterday whether the ‘‘maximum pressure’’ campaign would continue, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters: ‘‘We have sanctions on, they are very powerful and we would not take those sanctions off unless North Korea denuclearised.’’

The Trump Administration has credited its ‘‘maximum pressure’’ campaign, supported by the United Nations and major world powers, for helping bring North Korea to the table to negotiate giving up its nuclear weapons.

Sanders said preparations for a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jongun were going well, and the two were tentatively scheduled to meet at 9am Singapore time (1pm NZ time) on June 12.

Trump said on Saturday the summit he had cancelled the previous week was back on after he received the North Korean delegation bearing a letter from Kim.

Sanders declined to ‘‘get into the specifics’’ about the contents of Kim’s letter, but added ‘‘we feel like things are continuing to move forward and good progress has been made’’.

‘‘The president has been receiving daily briefings on North Korea from his national security team,’’ she added.

Top Senate Democrats told Trump yesterday not to make a deal that left North Korea with nuclear weapons, and threatened to maintain or toughen sanctions if that condition was not met.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and ranking Democrats from national security committees released a letter to Trump laying out demands for any pact, which they said must be permanent.

They also urged him to lean hard on Kim’s ally, China, to ensure it ‘‘will do all it can to help secure an agreement and then insist on strict North Korean compliance with such an agreement’’. — Reuters