‘N. Korea has no economic future if it keeps nuclear weapons’

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that North Korea does not have any economic future with nuclear weapons as the Pentagon confirmed that the United States and South Korea had agreed to end joint large scale spring military exercises.

“North Korea has an incredible, brilliant economic future if they make a deal, but they don’t have any economic future if they have nuclear weapons,” Mr. Trump said at a Conservative Political Action Conference. He added that the relationship with North Korea seemed to be ”very, very strong.”

According to a statement, acting Pentagon Chief Patrick Shanahan spoke with his South Korea counterpart on Saturday and they agreed to adapt their training programmes. The two “made clear that the Alliance decision to adapt our training programme reflected our desire to reduce tension and support our diplomatic efforts to achieve complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula in a final, fully verified manner,” the Pentagon said.

South Korea’s military issued a similar statement also confirming plans to end the spring joint military exercises.