An NBC News report published Tuesday, citing various intelligence officials and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report, reveals that many in the U.S. intelligence community have little faith that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un will ever abandon his nuclear weapons program.
According to NBC News, who spoke with three U.S. officials involved in the report’s publication, intelligence analysts do not believe that dictator Kim Jong-un will go through with any pledge of denuclearization, casting doubt on President Donald Trump’s ongoing ambition to see the rogue regime get rid of its nuclear weapons.
“Everybody knows they are not going to denuclearize,” said one intelligence official with knowledge of the report, which was published earlier this month.
The report also found that Kim may “consider offering to open a Western hamburger franchise in Pyongyang as a show of goodwill,” as well as other concessions such as “other limited American investment in North Korea.”
Pyongyang may also allow South Korea to help provide humanitarian aid in the form of food delivery to the millions of North Koreans starving outside the relatively prosperous capital of Pyongyang. However, one official admitted that the report was “essentially some very smart analysts offering their very best guesses.”
Trump indicated this month that, should North Korea initiate a process of denuclearization, the regime would receive “protections that would be very strong,” possibly in the form of lifting economic sanctions and America not advocating for any form of regime change.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said during a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that he was “optimistic” that the U.S. will be able to convince Kim to take steps towards the denuclearization, adding that he had made “made it crystal clear” to Kim that he “fully understands what dismantlement means in terms of these negotiations.”
Potential negotiations with North Korea appeared to take a setback after Trump canceled a planned peace meeting with Kim Jong-un in Singapore last week, responding to regime officials describing Vice President Mike Pence as a “political dummy” for comments he made about the country’s future should it not dismantle its nuclear arsenal.
Negotiations for a summit between the two men now appear to have recommenced after North Korean officials said they were willing to provide “time and opportunity” to the United States, with speculation growing that the event would be a three-way meeting between Trump, Kim, and leftist South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Despite downgrading the belligerence of their state media, which regularly called for the wholesale destruction of the United States, North Korea’s rhetoric still remains hostile. In a commentary in the state propaganda newspaper Rodong Sinmun this week, the author asserted that it is “high time the U.S. behaved properly” if talks between Trump and Kim are to be successful.
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