North Korea still making 'nuclear material', says Mike Pompeo
North Korea is still making nuclear material, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told senators. The development came six weeks after US President Donald Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12, where Kim had agreed to totally denuclearize Korean peninsula. Pompeo said Trump "would agree that the primary systems that have threatened America continue to exist."
Pompeo warned that Washington will not let nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang continue indefinitely. "We are engaged in patient diplomacy, but we will not let this drag out to no end," Pompeo said.
Pompeo said he had emphasized this position during "productive" discussions he'd had with Kim Yong Chol, Kim's powerful right-hand man. "Progress is happening. We need Chairman Kim Jong Un to follow through on his commitments made in Singapore." In a sign of potential progress, new satellite imagery shows that Kim has started dismantling a facility seen as a testing ground for intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Pompeo added that "every single nation" must maintain enforcement of US sanctions against North Korea. China and Russia have argued that North Korea should be rewarded with the prospect of eased sanctions for opening up dialogue with the United States and halting missile tests.
