NEW YORK, April 23. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump is not planning to announce during his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that Washington is substantially relieving its sanctions against Pyeongyang despite North Korea’s recent statement to halt nuclear tests, the Wall Street Journal daily reported.
"When the president says that he will not make the mistakes of the past, that means the U.S. will not be making substantial concessions, such as lifting sanctions, until North Korea has substantially dismantled its nuclear programs," the daily cited a senior official in the Trump administration as saying.
"If North Korea is willing to move quickly to denuclearize, then the sky is the limit," the official said. "All sorts of good things can happen."
North Korea’s KCNA news agency reported on Saturday citing leader Kim Jong Un that Pyongyang halted nuclear tests and joined the global nuclear disarmament process in line with its new strategy to build socialist economy.
North Korea stated its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1993 and completed the withdrawal in January 2003. To date, the Communist state has held six nuclear tests. Last September, Pyongyang announced a successful test of a hydrogen bomb and proclaimed itself a nuclear power.
US White House announced earlier in March that the US president had been for some time preparing for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gathering information from his counsellors and intelligence services.
The White House, however, said the meeting would be impossible in case North Korea did not take definite steps toward the cancellation of its nuclear program.
In early February, North Korea rolled out its new Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at a Pyongyang military parade. The North Korean military demonstrated at least four launchers with Hwasong-15 ICBMs painted in their typical black hue and also several prime movers with Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The US Department of State announced on March 6 that it had imposed a set of new sanctions on Pyongyang over the alleged use of chemical warfare agent to assassinate the North Korean leader’s elder half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, at Kuala Lumpur airport on February 13, 2017.