Trump is going to engage Kim Jong Un in another denuclearization summit in about a month from now, despite there having been little progress after last year’s summit.
Well today DNI Director Dan Coats has come out with a new assessment on the denuclearization of North Korea, and he believes it’s not likely to happen:
POLITICO – The top U.S. intelligence chief predicted on Tuesday that North Korea will not “completely give up” its nuclear capabilities, laying out a tough road for President Donald Trump’s negotiations with the reclusive country.
“We currently assess that North Korea will seek to retain its [weapons of mass destruction] capabilities and is unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons and production capabilities because its leaders ultimately view nuclear weapons as critical to regime survival,” National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said during a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Coats said that Kim’s regime has “halted some provocative behavior” related to its nuclear program and that the country has not conducted any nuclear tests in more than a year. He said that Kim also “continues to demonstrate openness” to denuclearizing the area.
But he said that their assessments and observations show that some of North Korea’s activity is “inconsistent with full denuclearization.”
Coats added, “While we assess that sanctions on exports have been effective and largely maintained, North Korea seeks to mitigate the effects of the U.S.-led pressure campaign through diplomatic engagement, counter-pressure against the sanctions regime and direct sanctions evasion.”
So it sounds like he’s saying that these North Korean summits are basically just a dog and pony show as Kim Jong Un butters up the Trump administration to keep us from holding them to account for their actions and threats.
John Bolton predicted early last year (before entering the Trump administration) that Kim Jong Un was just buying time with these diplomatic summits for his nuclear weapons program.
From what Coats is saying today it sounds like that’s right on the money. Un wants to decrease the sanctions pressure so he can get back to building nukes and threatening everyone.