Trump upbeat on North Korea’s denuclearisation: US state secy

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from left, arriving to brief the press during his visit at United Nations headquarters in NY.

But if each tanker were fully loaded with fuel, the amount smuggled would be triple its quota, the US documents said. In return for a temporary, readily reversible, suspension of joint United States military exercises with South Korea and worthless security guarantees, North Korea has halted its nuclear and missile tests, as well as handed over three imprisoned USA citizens.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on members of the United Nations to enforce sanctions against North Korea more strictly and for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to keep his promise to denuclearize.

South Korean Ambassador to the UN Cho Tae-yul also joined the talks. The comments by US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats on Thursday at the Aspen Security Conference in Colorado underscore the cynical character of the Trump administration’s approach to negotiations with North Korea. She had flown to NY for the occasion and to meet with Guterres.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is reportedly set to visit Pyongyang in late August for another meeting with North Korea’s President Kim.

On Friday, Pompeo said he and the president remained “upbeat” about the prospects that North Korea will move ahead with complete and verifiable denuclearization.

At the Singapore summit, Kim agreed to work toward denuclearisation of the peninsula, but the accord was short on details.

The head of the U.S. Intelligence Community said the U.S. will continue to encourage Russian Federation and China to pressure North Korea with worldwide sanctions.

However, Russia’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told Reuters there was no reason for Haley to reproach Russia.

Accordingly, the statement signed in Singapore, contrary to what Pompeo or Trump might have insisted upon, did not make reference to the unilateral disarmament of North Korea.

From Kim Jong-un’s perspective, until the overall cadence of relations with the USA improves, there’s little to be said on nuclear arms control, never mind denuclearisation.

“If fully loaded at around 90 percent laden, DPRK tankers have delivered almost triple the 2018 quota at 1,367,628 barrels”, the United States said in the document submitted to the committee, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Standing alongside US Ambassador Nikki Haley in NY on Friday, Pompeo said the US expects countries to honour their commitments to cut off North Korea’s economy.

North Korea has also reportedly stepped up its fuel production for nuclear missiles, despite committing to denuclearization.

But America’s top diplomat warned that “when sanctions are not enforced, the prospects for the successful denuclearization of North Korea are diminished”. During the summit, Trump said Pyongyang should start the process “very quickly”, and that “a lot of people” would be sent to North Korea to verify it.

North Korea operates a fleet of 24 tankers capable of engaging in ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum products and other banned goods, according to the US Treasury Department.

Kim also reportedly declined to meet with Pompeo during the trip, despite a meeting being planned.

“Hopefully positive things will be taking place with respect to the future of North Korea”. “So do I, as progress is happening”, he added without elaborating. “Russians have done many things to enforce the sanctions and we deeply appreciate that”, the USA state secretary added. “And what we have been seeing is certain countries wanting to do waivers, certain countries saying, Let’s lift sanctions, certain countries wanting to do more”.

The next day, Trump told Fox News there was a ” the summit would take place.

“The scope and scale of that is agreed to”.