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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that the world is "at the dawn of a new day" in the face of the threat posed by North Korea's weapons programs, but that sanctions against the country should continue for the time being.
In a speech to the UN Security Council, Pompeo said President Trump's summit meeting in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un laid the groundwork for the complete denuclearization of the peninsula. Korean.
But he told the council that until this process is completed, the world must abide by the economic sanctions still in effect against the government in Pyongyang.
"We must not forget what has brought us so far: the historic international pressure campaign that this council has made possible through the sanctions it has imposed," said Mr. Pompeo.
Mr. Pompeo led the 15-member council meeting at the United Nations General Assembly meeting. On Wednesday, he met his North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong-ho. Next month, he will travel to Pyongyang, partly to set the stage for a second meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim.
In his speech, Mr. Pompeo said that special attention should be given to the strict limits imposed on North Korean oil imports, the cessation of its coal exports and its practice of sending workers to other countries. country to earn foreign currency.
He said the United States was particularly concerned that members of the Security Council were hosting North Korean workers, an apparent reference to both China and Russia, where such workers often worked.
While North Korea has ended its public testing of nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles, intelligence services show that it continues to produce nuclear weapons.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said that he did not want to rush for discussions.
"I've had it all the time in the world," Mr. Trump said.
The so-called "maximum pressure" campaign put in place early in the Trump administration included the diplomatic isolation of Pyongyang as a critical component. With the Trump-Kim summit and the North Korean leader's repeated meetings with his counterparts in South Korea and China, this part of the campaign has definitely ended.
Mr. Pompeo's frequent insistence on the maintenance of economic sanctions has angered North Koreans He complained shortly after leaving Pyongyang in July for his "unilateral demand for denuclearization". North Koreans preferred to deal directly with Trump, whose speeches were more accommodating. The two leaders wrote letters to each other.
Pompeo says he is privately skeptical that North Korea will easily give up its nuclear weapons, according to the opinion of the IAC director, Gina Haspel, also publicly expressed this week.
On Thursday, Mr Pompeo said he wanted to end his remarks on a positive note and spoke again of a "new dawn".
"We do not know yet what this day will bring," he said, "but we hope the current diplomatic breakthrough will bring a better future to North Korea and a safer world for all of us."
