Kim must scrap nuclear weapons before sanctions end
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said there will be no sanctions relief for North Korea until it gets rid of its nuclear weapons.
Mr Pompeo was responding to a report from North Korean official state media that said President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un had agreed to a “step-by-step” process.
Earlier Mr Trump boasted that his summit with Mr Kim had ended any nuclear threat from North Korea, though the meeting produced no details on how or when weapons might be eliminated or even reduced.
While Mr Trump claimed a historic breakthrough at the most significant diplomatic event of his presidency, Mr Pompeo was more measured.
He said that the US wants North Korea to take “major” nuclear disarmament steps within the next two years – before the end of Mr Trump’s first term in 2021.
And while North Korean state media had claimed that Mr Trump and Mr Kim agreed to “step-by-step” actions - an apparent euphemism for phased sanctions relief in exchange for phased denuclearisation - Mr Pompeo ruled that out. He insisted that Mr Trump had been explicit about the sequencing from the start.
“We’re going to get denuclearisation,” Mr Pompeo said. “Only then will there be relief from the sanctions.”
Shortly after arriving in Seoul to brief US treaty allies Japan and South Korea, Mr Pompeo also said the US would resume “war games” with close ally South Korea if the North stops negotiating in good faith.
The president had announced a halt in the drills after his meeting with Mr Kim on Tuesday, a concession long sought by Pyongyang but generally opposed by Seoul and Tokyo.
After a three-way meeting with Mr Pompeo and Japan’s top diplomat, South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha suggested the US still had some explaining to do, telling reporters that the issue of the drills “was not discussed in depth”.
“This is a matter that military officials from South Korea and the US will have to discuss further and coordinate,” Ms Kang said.
The summit in Singapore did mark a reduction in tensions compared to earlier this year when Mr Trump and Mr Kim exchanged insults.