The United States called on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday to act on his promise to give up nuclear weapons and said the world, including China
UNITED NATIONS – The United States called on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday to act on his promise to give up nuclear weapons and said the world, including China and Russia, must continued to enforce sanctions until he does so.
After briefing U. N. Security Council envoys in New York, U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned against loosening sanctions on Pyongyang after Russia and China suggested the council could discuss such a move.
The U. N. Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
U. S. President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader met for the first time in Singapore last month and Pompeo followed up with inconclusive talks with North Korea this month. He reiterated on Friday that he had made progress.
“Chairman Kim made a promise… that he was prepared to denuclearize. The scope and scale of that is agreed to. The North Koreans understand what that means,” Pompeo told reporters. “We need to see Chairman Kim do what he promised the world he would do.”
Pompeo said “the scope and scale” of denuclearization “is agreed to” and “the North Koreans understand what that means,” though he didn’t elaborate and sidestepped a question on what the first step should be.
Nonetheless, Pompeo told reporters after meeting behind closed doors with the 15 council members that Trump “remains upbeat about the prospects for denuclearization” following the historic summit in Singapore. “So do I, as progress is happening,” he added without elaborating.
The Trump administration hopes that one day North Korea will be at the United Nations “not as a pariah but as a friend,” Pompeo said. But “it will take full enforcement of sanctions for us to get there” as well as Kim following through “on his personal commitments” to Trump.
