{"id":11356,"date":"2019-03-01T12:41:31","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T04:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=11356"},"modified":"2019-03-01T12:41:34","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T04:41:34","slug":"north-korea-wanted-most-sanctions-lifted-in-exchange-for-partial-yongbyon-closure-us-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=11356","title":{"rendered":"North Korea wanted most sanctions lifted in exchange for partial Yongbyon closure: US official"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>WASHINGTON: North Korea proposed closing part of its Yongbyon nuclear complex in exchange for the lifting of all UN sanctions except those directly targeting their weapons of mass destruction programmes, a senior US State Department official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The dilemma that we were confronted with is the North Koreans at this point are unwilling to impose a complete freeze on their weapons of mass destruction programs,&#8221; the official told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kim Jong-un confirms his denuclearization commitment, but~\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9HYArAjes4Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;So to give many, many billions of dollars in sanctions relief would in effect put us in a position of subsidising the ongoing development of weapons of mass destruction in North Korea,&#8221; said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The official spoke to reporters following the collapse of a second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam on Thursday (Feb 28).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It was all about the sanctions,&#8221; Trump told a news conference after the talks were cut short. &#8220;Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn&#8217;t do that.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told a news conference that North Korea had sought only a partial lifting of sanctions &#8220;related to people&#8217;s livelihoods and unrelated to military sanctions\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US official said the two sides also differed on the closing of the Yongbyon nuclear complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;What the North Koreans proposed to us was closing down a portion of the Yongbyon complex,&#8221; the US official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a substantial set of facilities on a single property. And it is important to be very precise about that. And the North Koreans struggled to give us a precise definition of what that was,&#8221; the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>N. Korean leader to leave Hanoi on Saturday morning: source<br><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;North Korean leader Kim Jong-un plans to head back home from Hanoi on Saturday morning, earlier than initially scheduled, a diplomatic source said, amid speculation about whether the decision is linked to his unsuccessful summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"331\" src=\"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/nkss.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11363\" srcset=\"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/nkss.jpg 500w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/nkss-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption>North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrives at the Dong Dang train station in Vietnam on Feb. 26, 2019, in this photo released by Pyongyang&#8217;s state media.Photo courtesy Yonhap<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Kim plans to leave for a border train station in Dong Dang at around 10 a.m. Saturday, wrapping up his two-day official visit to Vietnam, according to the source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vietnam&#8217;s foreign ministry had earlier said Kim would head back to Pyongyang on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON: North Korea proposed closing part of its Yongbyon nuclear complex in exchange for the lifting of all UN sanctions except those directly targeting their weapons of mass destruction programmes, a senior US State Department official said. &#8220;The dilemma that we were confronted with is the North Koreans at this point are unwilling to impose [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":11372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215,297],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11356"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}