An official of the United States has said Washington plans to dismantle the bulk of North Korea’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes.
White House national security adviser John Bolton made the remarks on Sunday during CBS’s “Face the Nation” programme.
“If they have the strategic decision already made to do that and they’re cooperative, we can move very quickly,” he said, reports Reuters.
“Physically we would be able to dismantle the overwhelming bulk of their programs within a year,” he hoped.
He said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will likely discuss that proposal with the North Koreans soon.
Another global media reported that Pompeo was due to visit North Korea this week. But Reuters has not been able to confirm his travel plans.
North Korea agreed at the summit to “work toward denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” but the joint statement signed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump gave no details on how or when Pyongyang might surrender its nuclear weapons.
Pompeo told reporters the day after the Singapore summit on June 12 that Washington hoped to achieve “major disarmament” by North Korea within Trump’s current term, which ends on January 20, 2021.
Bolton said the United States was going into nuclear negotiations aware of Pyongyang’s failure to live up to its promises in the past.
“We know exactly what the risks are - them using negotiations to drag out the length of time they have to continue their nuclear, chemical, biological weapons programs and ballistic missiles,” he said.
“There is not any starry-eyed feeling among the group doing this,” he said. “We are well aware of what the North Koreans have done in the past.”
