American spy agencies warn North Korea is unlikely to give up its nukes

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 29 January 2019

North Korea is unlikely to surrender its nuclear arsenal, U.S. intelligence agencies will say in a report Tuesday, because the weapons are considered necessary for the survival of leader Kim Jong Un's power against regime change threats.

Viewed by The Associated Press in advance of the hearing where it will be shared, the report from National Intelligence Director Dan Coats casts doubt on the viability of President Trump's aim of North Korean denuclearization. North Korea has in the past specifically cited U.S.-orchestrated regime change in denuclearized countries like Iraq and Libya as a rationale for nuclear armament.

North Korea, meanwhile, said Tuesday it expects peace with the United States to proceed "wonderfully at a fast pace" if Washington "responds to our efforts with trustworthy measures and corresponding practical actions." Following Trump and Kim's summit in Singapore last year, said North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations Han Tae Song, Pyongyang has "declared that we would neither make and test nuclear weapons any longer nor use and proliferate them and we have taken various practical measures." A second summit is expected next month.

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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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