The news that North Korea leader Kim Jong Un may be considering denuclearization is an indication that President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure campaign is working," Heather Nauert, the acting undersecretary of state for diplomacy and affairs, said Wednesday.
"A lot of countries around the world coming together and recognizing the destabilizing threat North Korea poses not just on the region but on the entire world," Nauert told Fox News. "We think without this maximum pressure campaign this kind of thing wouldn't be happening."
She said she was "tremendously pleased" that Chinese President Xi Jinping contacted Trump on Tuesday to tell him North Korea had reaffirmed its commitment to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
China holds a great deal of leverage over North Korea as its central trading partner, Nauert added, so the news that Kim had boarded a train and left his country for the first time since 2011 to travel for the secret meeting with Xi was "pretty incredible."
Nauert also commented on the news that Russia plans to expel some diplomats in retribution for the United States and allies throwing out Russian diplomats over a nerve gas attack launched in Great Britain against a former spy.
"What Russia needs to do, I can say this, Russia needs to stop this kind of behavior," said Nauert. "We've seen it in the U.K. We've seen them responsible for killing thousands and thousands of innocent civilians in Syria. We've seen what Russia has done in Ukraine as well. So Russia needs to stop its actions."
She also excused herself for calling the Russians who have been expelled diplomats; instead, she insisted, "they are spies."
"They operated under false diplomatic cover using the generosity of the United States and other countries around the world," said Nauert. "Hopefully we won't see anymore action like they have taken in the U.K."
Russia, meanwhile has denied it was behind the gas attack, but "we have proof; the Brits have proof," said Nauert.
Nauert also commented on the Iran nuclear deal, saying it did not make the world safer or stop Iran from all its "horrible actions," and that President Donald Trump is looking at Iran "through the totality of its bad behavior, not through the lens of a nuclear deal.
"The president has until May 12 to decide what he wants to do," she said. "I can tell you from the State Department we have lots of talks with our allies overseas, the French, Germans, Brits, you name it. They understand too that Iran is responsible for terrible behavior. They also share our concerns about that."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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