NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th February, 2019) The United States will maintain sanctions against North Korea until full denuclearization is achieved, US Department of State Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino told reporters.
"Sanctions - that is something that will continue to be maintained until we have achieved our final result of the fully, finally verified denuclearization," Palladino said on Tuesday when asked whether the United States intends to ease the sanctions as North Korea begins to denuclearize.
On February 27-28, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will hold their second summit in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
The situation on the Korean Peninsula has seen a significant improvement last year, with Kim boosting ties with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and holding a historic summit with Trump in June.
The first US-North Korean summit resulted in an agreement stipulating that North Korea would make efforts to promote the complete denuclearization of the peninsula in exchange for the United States and South Korea freezing their military drills as well as the potential removal of US sanctions.
In 2017, various economic and diplomatic sanctions have been imposed on North Korea in response to its repeated missile launches and nuclear tests carried out in violation of UN resolutions.
