The US is ready to offer North Korea security guarantees unprecedented in their nature, Washington’s top diplomat has said, in order to try and ease Kim Jong-un concerns.
On the eve of a summit between the North Korean leader and Donald Trump, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington was prepared to go to new lengths to ensure the East Asian regime felt able to proceed with the peace process and work towards denuclearisation. While the US hopes such a carrot will win over Mr Kim, it will keep economic sanctions in place until it gets rid of its nuclear weapons programme.
“We’re prepared to take actions that will provide them sufficient certainty that they can be comfortable that denuclearisation isn’t something that ends badly for them,” he told reporters. “It is the case we are prepared to give security assurances necessary for the North Koreans to engage in....denuclearisation.”
He added: “If diplomacy doesn’t move in the right direction, sanctions will increase.”
While Mr Pompeo did not give specifics, his comments likely referred to assurances given to North Korea during previous attempts at detente between the two countries, most notably in 1994 and 2003. On both occasions, North Korea vowed to give up its programme in exchange for an easing of sanctions, but the efforts ended in failure and mutual suspicion.
Mr Trump had previously tried to reassure Mr Kim that he would not suffer the fate of someone like Muammar Gaddafi if he gives up his weapons. Pyongyang began to get cold feet about the summit with US national security adviser John Bolton said in interviews that North Korea should give up its weapons voluntarily as a starting point for discussions.
He was referring to the actions of Mr Gaddafi in 2001, not the Libyan leaders death at the hands of rebels in 2011.
Mr Pompeo’s remarks came as officials from the US and North Korea worked frantically to try and be ready for what has the potential to be the most significant political summit in decades. While Mr Trump has recently played down the prospects of brokering a deal during a single meeting, experts have said the very fact they are even meeting – the first between a North Korean leader and sitting US president – is nothing less than remarkable.
Less than a year ago, as North Korea aggressively stepped up its testing of missiles and nuclear material, Mr Trump threatened to completely destroy the country, in his maiden address to the UN General Assembly.
Mr Trump said on Monday he expected his meeting with Mr Kim could “work out very nicely”. During a lunch with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the US president said: “We’ve got a very interesting meeting....tomorrow, and I just think it’s going to work out very nicely.”
Commenting for the first time on the summit, North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency earlier said the two sides would exchange “wide-ranging and profound views” to re-set relations. It heralded the summit as part of a “changed era”.
Discussions would focus on “the issue of building a permanent and durable peace-keeping mechanism on the Korean peninsula, the issue of realising the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and other issues of mutual concern,” KCNA said.
Meanwhile, Iran said North Korea should be wary of negotiating with Mr Trump following his withdrawal from the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said on Monday that North Korea should approach this week’s summit with Mr Trump with “awareness”. He said Iran viewed Mr Trump and the US with “great pessimism,” saying they are known for “quitting treaties and violating their commitments”.
