North Korea could be changing its mind on denuclearization, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Tuesday.
In remarks to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies — which gave her the Jeane Kirkpatrick Award — Haley appeared to hint that negotiations over the dismantling of Kim Jong Un’s nuclear program may be at an impasse, the Washington Examiner reported.
“Are they wishing or maybe changing their mind on denuclearization?” Haley said. “It’s possible. But we’re not going to change our mind on the sanctions.”
“We knew this was going to be a slow, tough process,” she said, the Examiner reported.
President Donald Trump abruptly canceled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s plan to travel to North Korea just a day after announcing the trip. The plan was changed, according to the Washington Post, after the administration received a “sufficiently belligerent” letter from the North Korean regime.
But Haley offered a positive assessment of U.S sanctions on North Korea.
“The positive is that we have sanctions that basically cut off 90 percent of their trade, 30 percent of their oil, and we're holding tight on those sanctions,” she said, the Washington Examiner reported, adding: “The good thing I can tell you is we haven't had to deal with ballistic missile testing in months. So the positive is we're now talking. The positive is we're not dealing with ballistic missile tests."