The White House on Monday defended President Trump against concerns that he is “naive” to believe North Korea will follow through on its promise of denuclearization.
“We’re not naive in this process. We’ve seen some steps in the right direction, but we have a long way to go,” press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced last Friday that he would suspend all nuclear and ballistic missile tests until he and Trump hold a face-to-face summit, a meeting that White House officials hope will take place between now and June. Trump affirmed Kim’s declaration in a tweet on Sunday, leading critics to question whether the president was being taken advantage of.
In a series of subsequent tweets, Trump blasted the media for claiming his administration has already made concessions to North Korea that could negatively impact U.S. interests.
“Fake News NBC just state that we have given up so much in our negotiations with North Korea, and they have given up nothing. Wow, we haven’t given up anything [and] they have agreed to denuclearization (so great for the world), site closure, [and] no more testing!” Trump tweeted on Sunday.
“We are a long way from conclusion on North Korea, maybe things will work out, and maybe they won’t – only time will tell,” he added.
Trump has previously said he is prepared to walk away from a sit-down meeting with Kim if he feels the North Korean regime is uncommitted to taking “concrete” steps toward denuclearization.
“Certainly the goal is dencucleariztion of the peninsula and we’re going to continue the maximum pressure campaign until we see concrete actions,” Sanders said Monday. “No sanctions will be lifted until we see concrete actions taken by North Korea to denuclearize.”
