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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gives a press conference at the Marriott hotel in Singapore for White House pool reporters at 5:30 pm on June 11

On June 11, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo once again pressured North Korea to accept complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID). As compensation for CVID, Pompeo offered the North a “unique” security guarantee. The day before the North Korea-US summit on June 12, Pompeo appeared to be pushing the North to make a final decision through the simultaneous application of pressure and incentives.

Pompeo made his remarks during a press conference at the press center at a Marriott hotel in Singapore for White House pool reporters at 5:30 pm. "North Korea has previously confirmed to us its willingness to denuclearize, and we are eager to see if those words prove sincere," he told reporters.

“We are hopeful this summit will have set the conditions for future productive talks,” Pompeo said, urging the North to boldly accept CVID. Pompeo said that CVID is “the only outcome that the United States will accept,” describing it as the “ultimate” American objective and stating that sanctions against the North would remain in place until it has denuclearized.

Pompeo said that the “verifiable” aspect of CVID is particularly important and explained that the US is working on a system that will be robust enough to verify North Korea’s denuclearization. Verification, Pompeo said, must take place for swift progress to be made and said that this had been ignored in the past.

“We're prepared to give security assurances that are different, unique to what America has been willing to provide previously,” Pompeo said, though he refused to go into the details at that time.

Pompeo said that Trump has sincerely laid out a process that is fundamentally different from past experiences. He also expressed his hope that the meeting on June 12 would be different from previous meetings and would work to the benefit of both countries.

In regard to the status of North Korea and the US’s preliminary negotiations, Pompeo said that the talks are moving forward quite quickly. Trump is completely prepared for the talks, Pompeo said, while expressing his optimism that the talks’ outcome will be successful.

By Hwang Joon-bum and Kim Ji-eun, staff reporters

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