Kim: Don’t Want to Burden My Children With Nuclear Arms

Told Pompeo he was willing to get rid of nuclear arsenal in April

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has told US officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that he is interested in giving up North Korea’s nuclear weapons because he doesn’t want his children to be burdened with having to deal with them.

Former CIA official Andrew Kim confirmed Kim’s comments in the media, saying he told Pompeo this during a meeting back in April of 2018. He said Kim was very worried about his children having to “carry the nuclear weapon on their back their whole life.”

While Kim has repeatedly said publicly he is willing to get rid of nuclear arms because he doesn’t feel he needs them to secure North Korea, comments on his eye toward the future, and his children’s’ eventual rule, were never mentioned.

That’s noteworthy, because some US officials who would surely have been privy to these comments months ago have continued to express public skepticism about Kim’s willingness to disarm, even though this is a fairly well thought out position that he told the US almost a year ago.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.