The White House said on Monday its policy of tough sanctions on North Korea has not changed, days after U.S. President Donald Trump said he no longer wanted to use the phrase “maximum pressure” to describe the campaign to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
US, North Korean leaders scheduled to meet on June 12
STEPANAKERT, JUNE 5, ARTSAKHPRESS: After meeting a senior official from Pyongyang at the White House on Friday, Trump said North Korea was being more cooperative and that although sanctions would remain in place, he would hold off on imposing new ones.
Trump said he didn’t want to use the term “maximum pressure” any more, because the two sides were “getting along.”
Asked at a news briefing on Monday whether the “maximum pressure” campaign would continue, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters: “We have sanctions on, they are very powerful and we would not take those sanctions off unless North Korea denuclearized.”
The Trump administration has credited its “maximum pressure” campaign, supported by the United Nations and major world powers, for helping bring North Korea to the table to negotiate giving up its nuclear weapons.
Sanders said preparations for a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were going well, and the two are tentatively scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Singapore time (1 a.m. GMT) on June 12.
