US pushes China and Russia to keep up sanctions pressure on North Korea
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accuses Pyongyang of violating UN sanctions and calls for more action to enforce them
The United States on Friday welcomed the UN Security Council’s united support for the fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea and pressed China and Russia to strictly enforce sanctions to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused North Korea of violating an array of tough sanctions imposed by the council. He warned that “when sanctions are not enforced, the prospects for the successful denuclearisation of North Korea are diminished”.
Nonetheless, Pompeo told reporters after meeting behind closed doors with the 15 council members that President Donald Trump “remains upbeat about the prospects for denuclearisation” following his historic summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. “So do I, as progress is happening,” he added without elaborating.
The Trump administration hopes that one day North Korea will be at the United Nations “not as a pariah but as a friend,” Pompeo said. But “it will take full enforcement of sanctions for us to get there” as well as Kim following through “on his personal commitments” to Trump.
At the summit, Trump and Kim agreed to work toward denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, without describing when and how it would occur.
Follow-up talks this month between Pompeo and North Korean senior officials in Pyongyang had a rocky start, with North Korea accusing the United States of making “unilateral and gangster-like” demands.