[AP/Yonhap News Photo]
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo offered to allow the American private sector to invest in North Korea if the regime agrees to fully dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
Pompeo returned from a trip to Pyongyang last week, where he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to prepare for the June 12 summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim.
"This will be Americans coming in -- private sector Americans, not the U.S. taxpayer -- private sector Americans coming in to help build out the energy grid. They need enormous amounts of electricity in North Korea," he said in an interview on Fox News.'
The U.S. will also offer help in developing North Korea's infrastructure and addressing the North Korean people's basic needs "so they can eat meat and have healthy lives," according to the top American diplomat.
"Those are the kind of things that, if we get what it is the president has demanded -- the complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization of North Korea -- that the American people will offer in spades," Pompeo said, painting a more detailed picture of possible U.S. concessions to the North.
Pompeo earlier said that if the North takes "bold action to quickly denuclearize," the U.S. is prepared to work with North Korea "to achieve prosperity on par with our South Korean friends."
In a separate interview with CBS on Sunday, the secretary of state said what the U.S. is offering is not taxpayer money, but know-how, knowledge, entrepreneurs, and risk-takers who will work with the North Koreans to help them create a robust economy.
Asked if such concessions could amount to the lifting of sanctions against the regime, Pompeo said there will be more than just sanctions relief if the U.S. can get North Korea to denuclearize.
"The president has a commitment, and he will make this commitment to Chairman Kim, I am confident, that says if you do the things we need to do so that America is no longer held at risk by your nuclear weapons arsenal, and that you get rid of your CBW program and missiles that threaten the world, we will ensure that your people have the opportunity for the greatness that I know Chairman Kim wants them to have," he said, referring to chemical and biological weapons.
(Yonhap)
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
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