'We'll lift sanctions and help make North Korea an economic rival to the South': US Secretary of State

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has promised sanctions relief for North Korea if it follows through on promises to dismantle its nuclear test sites.

In an interview with CBS News' Face the Nation program this morning, Pompeo unveiled plans to rescind some existing sanctions against the rogue nation and provide economic aid.

"They will get private capital," Mr Pompeo said.

"North Korea is desperately in need of energy support… of agricultural equipment and technology.

"The finest from the Midwest that I come from. We can deliver that."

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Mr Pompeo added US support would "create conditions for real economic prosperity for the North Korean people that will rival that of the South".

He pointed out that offer however was conditional upon North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons arsenal.

Mr Pompeo has confided the United States will also need to "provide security assurances" to North Korea's Kim Jong Un if the adversaries are to reach a nuclear deal, describing the stakes of President Donald Trump's upcoming summit with Kim.

Pompeo met with Kim last week in North Korea, helping set the stage for Mr Trump's historic summit with the North Korean leader in Singapore on June 12.

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Pompeo was asked on Fox News Sunday whether the US was in effect telling Kim he could stay in power if he met the US demands.

"We will have to provide security assurances, to be sure," Mr Pompeo said.

The top US diplomat did not elaborate, but his comment could refer to the type of assurances North Korea has sought in the past.

The North has said it needs nuclear weapons to counter what it believes is a US effort to strangle its economy and overthrow the Kim government.

"Make no mistake about it, America's interest here is preventing the risk that North Korea will launch a nuclear weapon into LA or Denver or to the very place we're sitting here this morning," Mr Pompeo said from Washington.

"That's our objective, that's the end state the president has laid out and that's the mission that he sent me on this past week, to put us on the trajectory to go achieve that."