WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will chair a meeting of the UN Security Council on North Korea September 27 to urge the international community to keep up the pressure on Pyongyang.
The meeting of top diplomats will take place on the sidelines of the United Nations Annual General Assembly.
“Secretary Pompeo intends to chair a UNSC ministerial on North Korea on Thursday September the 27th,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
“At that meeting he will get the secretary a chance to update the Security Council on our efforts toward the final fully verified denuclearization of North Korea as well as underscore the need for all member states to enforce existing sanctions.”
Pompeo has been pushing a tough stance against Pyongyang in recent months, including at the UN, warning that global pressure has eased since the June summit in Singapore between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
On Monday, the US ambassador to the UN accused Russia of cheating to bypass the sanctions regime.
Trump has also expressed doubts in recent weeks about China’s attitude.
Kim Jong Un reiterated in Singapore an old and vague commitment to “full denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
But the terms and timing have been postponed to further bilateral talks, which have stalled.
Washington has pledged to keep up pressure and sanctions until the denuclearization is at least on track, leading Pyongyang to denounce its “gangster” methods.
The State Department has not said at this point whether Pompeo will meet a North Korean delegation at the UN General Assembly next week.
The United States currently holds the rotating Security Council presidency, which it intends to use to further its foreign policy goals.
Trump will preside on September 26 another meeting, devoted mainly to Iran, with the stated purpose of highlighting its “destabilizing” activities.
© Agence France-Presse
