North Korea threatens to resume nuclear development if Trump doesn't drop sanctions


North Korea on Friday threatened to resume development of nuclear weapons if the United States does not lift economic sanctions.
"The U.S. thinks that its oft-repeated 'sanctions and pressure' leads to 'denuclearization,'" said a statement from Pyongyang. "We cannot help laughing at such a foolish idea." The statement argued lifting sanctions would be an appropriate reciprocation of North Korea's "proactive and good-will measures" since opening denuclearization talks with the U.S. and South Korea.
Also Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo indicated sanctions will continue. "A lot of work remains," he said, "but I'm confident that we will keep the economic pressure in place until such time as [North Korean leader Kim Jong Un] fulfills the commitment he made to President Trump back in June in Singapore."
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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