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Pompeo: North Korea seeks economic aid in exchange for scrapping nuclear program

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Pompeo: North Korea seeks economic aid in exchange for scrapping nuclear program

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un understands his regime must change its international strategy to improve its economy, but that Kim has made it clear he wants financial assistance in exchange for denuclearization.

"He has shared candidly that he understands that economic growth for his people, the well-being of his people, depends on a strategic shift, and we hope he's prepared to make that," Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "He made clear it was important to him that when that time came, when those objectives had been achieved, that he in return would receive economic help from America in the form of private sector businesses, knowledge, know-how, from other perhaps, contributions, foreign assistance and the like."

Pompeo told the panel that the United States has been "unambiguous" in its demands of North Korea.

"I could not have been clearer about the scope of the verification that would be required, all of the elements that would be necessary in order for America to understand that there had been real denuclearization," he said, adding that Kim had taken those comments "on board" in the discussions with Pompeo.

Pompeo also defined what the U.S. would consider as denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, though he could not say if North Korea would be left with a civilian nuclear program.

"There are multiple components of their system that threatens America," Pompeo said. "This would include their weapons capability, their missile capability, the technology that goes with that, so engines and systems associated with space launch vehicles, in addition to the missile programs, and then everything that is upstream from that including the production of fissile material, the technology that permits the capacity to produce that material and all of the engineering and R&D connected to that."

The secretary of state reiterated that he was hopeful the planned June 12 summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader would take place, despite Trump's public uncertainty about whether the meeting would actually happen.

"That decision will ultimately be up to Chairman Kim," Pompeo said when asked if the summit would go on as scheduled.