As the second summit between the United States and North Korea is only a few weeks away, the US special representative on North Korean policy, Stephen Beigun has called on Korea on Thursday, to openly provide a full declaration of its nuclear and missile programmes.
According to Yonhap news reports, Beigun, who is in charge of day-to-day negotiations with the North, said that the full disclosure of programs will be needed in order to acknowledge complete denuclearisation of the South Asian country
During his speech at Stanford University, Beigun said, “Before the process of denuclearisation can be final, we must also have a complete understanding of the full extent of the North Korean weapons of mass destruction missile programs. We will get that at some point through a comprehensive declaration.”
He said the U.S. has “contingencies” prepared in case if the negotiations fail, but did not offer any further details.
Pyongyang has expressed unwillingness to disclose any of such information, claiming that, if did, then it will give the US a list of targets to destroy. However, Beigun clarified that the US is uncompromising about verifying full denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
Further assuring Korea that Washington has no interest in the regime change, Beigun stated, “We are not going to invade North Korea.”
The envoy said, “We must reach an agreement on expert access and monitoring mechanisms of key sites to international standards, and ultimately ensure the removal or destruction of stockpiles of fissile material, weapons, missiles, launchers and other weapons of mass destruction.”
The envoy further acknowledged that there had been differences in the interpretation of denuclearisation for the two countries.
Late in February, the US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un are set to hold a second historic summit, reportedly in Vietnam, to reach an agreement. On Thursday, Trump has said the exact venue and date will be announced early next week.