US ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris takes hard line on North’s nuclear programme
Diplomat says sanctions will not be lifted until Pyongyang has got rid of all its atomic weapons
The US will not lift sanctions on North Korea until Pyongyang completely dismantles its nuclear weapons programme, said Washington’s ambassador to Seoul Harry Harris, delivering a hard-line message after a week of diplomacy that led to optimism about prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula.
North Korea “now has the chance to lift itself out of its self-imposed poverty and isolation”, Harris said in a keynote address at the Korea Society’s annual dinner in New York.
“The potential for change, for positive change, in North Korea is limitless, but only if [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un fulfils his commitment to denuclearise and until then sanctions will remain in place,” he said.
The potential for change, for positive change, in North Korea is limitless
Harris spoke days before the United Nations General Assembly in New York, a gathering touted as an opportunity for more progress in efforts to get the North to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme.
