Pompeo Disputes Trump's Take That North Korea ‘No Longer’ a Nuclear Threat

‘What he said was, that the efforts that had been made in Singapore...had substantially taken down the risks to the American people,’ Pompeo said.

Donald Trump’s top diplomat said Sunday morning that North Korea remains a nuclear threat—and the president's declaration last year that it was “no longer” a threat is not actually what he meant. Appearing on CNN's “State of the Union” days before a second round of talks between Trump and dictator Kim Jong Un over the North Korean nuclear weapons program, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo affirmed that program remains a threat to the U.S. After their first summit in Singapore last June, Trump tweeted that “there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” Since then, his administration’s intelligence officials have floated different ideas. In January, CIA director Gina Haspel said that North Korea remains “committed to developing a long-range nuclear missile.” Dan Coats, the administration’s top intelligence official, said before Congress in January that Kim is “unlikely” to give up nuclear weapons. Pressed on this by Jake Tapper, Pompeo responded that what Trump said about the end of the North Korean nuclear threat “is not what he said.” “What he said was, that the efforts that had been made in Singapore, the commitments Chairman Kim made had ‘substantially’ taken down he risks to the American people,” he said.

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Sam BrodeyDeputy Politics Editor

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