United Nations — The United States on Friday welcomed the U.N. Security Council’s united support for the fully verified denuclearization of North Korea and pressed China and Russia to strictly enforce U.N. sanctions to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.
U.S. 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 denuclearization 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 denuclearization” 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.