US to offer 'unique' guarantees to North Korea

Singapore: The US is likely to offer North Korea “unique” security guarantees to persuade it to give up its nuclear arsenal, secretary of state Mike Pompeo said Monday, on the eve of a historic summit in Singapore.

The White House said preparatory negotiations had “moved more quickly than expected” and Mr Trump would leave Tuesday evening after his talks with Kim Jong Un, seemingly ruling out the possibility the unprecedented tete-a-tete would run to two days.

The meeting, long sought by Pyongyang, will be the first ever between a serving US President and a North Korean leader, and will focus on the nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles the North has spent decades developing.

The Trump administration will only accept complete denuclearisation of the North, Mr Pompeo stressed.

In return, Washington would offer “different and unique” guarantees “to provide them sufficient certainty that they can be comfortable that denuclearisation is not something that ends badly for them”.

Though Mr Pompeo refused to go into details, he made it clear that the guarantees would go further than the 2005 agreement in which the US pledged not to attack North Korea with nuclear or conventional weapons.

The White House said on Monday Mr Trump would begin his meeting with Mr Kim at 9 am (local time) on Tuesday with a one-on-one meeting with translators but no advisers or aides. Only after that initial personal session will national security officials join the meeting.