North Korea’s Kim Jong Un understands that denuclearisation must happen “quickly”, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday, warning there will be no sanctions relief for Pyongyang until the process is complete.
Washington remained committed to the “complete, verifiable and irreversible” denuclearisation of North Korea, Pompeo added, after the joint statement from the historic US-North Korea summit in Singapore drew criticism for lack of detail on the key issue.
“We believe that Kim Jong Un understands the urgency… that we must do this quickly,” he said of the effort to have North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons.
Washington’s top diplomat was in Seoul to brief his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on Tuesday’s historic talks — the first between sitting leaders of the two countries — after which a triumphant President Donald Trump said the world can “sleep well”.
“There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea,” he tweeted Wednesday.
Despite the US leader’s positive tone, North Korea observers remain concerned that Kim provided no specific guarantees at the summit while notching up a huge publicity win.
And there appeared to be concern in South Korea and Japan too.
