Sanctions on North to stay, says US

Tough sanctions will remain on North Korea until its complete denuclearisation, says US secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

This seemingly contradicts North Korea’s view that the process agreed to at this week’s historic summit would be phased and reciprocal.

US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued a joint statement after their meeting in Singapore on Tuesday that reaffirmed the North’s commitment to “work towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, while Trump “committed to provide security guarantees”.

“President Trump has been incredibly clear about the sequencing of denuclearisation and relief from the sanctions,” Pompeo told reporters on Thursday after meeting South Korea’s president and Japan’s foreign minister in Seoul.

“We are going to get complete denuclearisation; only then will there be relief from the sanctions,” he said.

North Korean state media reported on Wednesday Kim and Trump had recognised the principle of “step-by-step and simultaneous action” to achieve peace and denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula.

Sceptics of how much the meeting achieved pointed to the North Korean leadership’s longheld view that nuclear weapons are a bulwark against what it fears are US plans to overthrow it and unite the Korean peninsula.