U.S. will help bring North Korea into 21st century if it gives up nukes, Mike Pompeo says

If North Korea follows through on its pledge to fully give up its nuclear weapons program and end years of hostility toward the U.S. and its allies, American companies stand ready to put tens of millions of dollars into the reclusive country to help bring it into the 21st century, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday morning.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Pompeo — who recently returned from another set of meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un — said the benefits North Korea can gain by scrapping its nuclear ambitions should be obvious.

“This will be Americans coming in, private sector Americans, not the U.S. taxpayer, private sector Americans coming in to help build out the energy grid … to work with them to develop infrastructure, all the things the North Korean people need,” Mr. Pompeo said, adding that those investments are wholly contingent on the North Koeans granting “what it is the president has demanded.”

What President Trump has demanded is the total elimination of the country’s nuclear program — a process North Korea says is already under way. The country announced over the weekend that it will dismantle a key nuclear site later this month, a decision that Mr. Pompeo called “good news for the American people and for the world.”

The dismantling will come ahead of a historic summit between Kim Jong-un and Mr. Trump next month in Singapore.