SOFT TOUCH

Trump Won’t Demand Weapons List Before Second Kim Jong Un Meeting, Pence Says

U.S. had been pressing North Korea to provide complete details of nuclear capabilities.

President Donald Trump will not demand a complete list of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile sites before a second meeting with leader Kim Jong Un, Vice President Mike Pence has told NBC News. Since a vague agreement for denuclearization was reached between Trump and Kim at their first meeting in June, the U.S. has pressed North Korea to hand over complete details of its nuclear capabilities. But such a list will not be a condition of the meeting, Pence said in Singapore early Thursday. “I think it will be absolutely imperative in this next summit that we come away with a plan for identifying all of the weapons in question, identifying all the development sites, allowing for inspections of the sites and the plan for dismantling nuclear weapons,” Pence said. Nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea have hit problems in recent weeks. Talks between North Korean officials and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were canceled this month, and U.S. officials revealed that North Korea is still working on its ballistic-missile program.

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