White House press secretary Sarah Sanders responded to a North Korean envoy’s openness to talks between the hermit kingdom and the U.S. by re-emphasizing the administration’s goal of removing the Kim Jong Un regime’s nuclear weapons.
Sanders, who is in Pyeongchang for the end of the Winter Olympics, said denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula remains, and will continue to remain, the end goal of the Trump administration.
“President Donald J. Trump’s Administration is committed to achieving the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The United States, our Olympic Host the Republic of Korea, and the international community broadly agree that denuclearization must be the result of any dialogue with North Korea,” Sanders said in a statement.
“The maximum pressure campaign must continue until North Korea denuclearizes. As President Trump has said, there is a brighter path available for North Korea if it chooses denuclearization. We will see if Pyongyang’s message today, that it is willing to hold talks, represents the first steps along the path to denuclearization. In the meantime, the United States and the world must continue to make clear that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are a dead end.”
North Korea has used the Winter Olympics in its southern neighbor as an opportunity for a propaganda campaign, and garnered good press in western outlets during the initial few days of the games. The combined entrance of the Korean teams under one flag and the appearance of Kim Jong Un’s sister at the first few days of the games were largely seen as a diplomatic coup.
North Korea signaled Sunday it would be willing to meet with the South Koreans and Americans in diplomatic talks through its envoy, Kim Yong Chol. Kim is believed to be the mastermind behind attacks on South Korea in 2010 that killed 50 South Koreans.
In a meeting with South Korea, Kim said the North has “ample intentions of holding talks” with South Korea and the U.S.
