Recent statements by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seem to indicate that the Trump administration may be willing to lift sanctions on North Korea before the country has achieved full denuclearization.
With the US-North Korea nuclear summit only days away, Pompeo said that the US government will ultimately want North Korea to get rid of it’s entire nuclear program. However, the Secretary of State did not mention full denuclearization as a precondition for the lifting of what he referred to as “the toughest economic sanctions that have ever been placed on North Korea.” Instead, he said that the sanctions would stay in place “until such time as we’re confident we’ve substantially reduced [the nuclear] risk.”
