US proposes 'Vietnamese model' for North Korea

By Kim Bo-eun

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said North Korea could become as prosperous as Vietnam if it partners with the U.S., and that this could become possible even if the countries were formerly enemies.

“In light of the once-unimaginable prosperity and partnership we have with Vietnam today, I have a message for Chairman Kim Jong-un: President Trump believes your country can replicate this path,” Pompeo said in a meeting with the U.S.-Vietnamese business community in Hanoi.

“It's yours if you'll seize the moment. This miracle can be yours. It can be your miracle in North Korea,” he said.

Pompeo added if North Korea follows this path, “Chairman Kim will be remembered as a hero of the North Korean people.”

He headed to Vietnam and met with its prime minister and foreign minister after talks with North Korean officials on the regime's denuclearization in Pyongyang, and meetings with foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan in Tokyo.

The U.S. and Vietnam normalized relations in 1995 after decades of being enemies after the Vietnam War. Pompeo mentioned that bilateral trade between the countries increased by 8,000 percent in two decades, and that the U.S. invested billions of dollars in the state.

The proposal comes at a time when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is focusing on building the nation's economy.

Economic development, however, is barred by multiple sanctions the North has been placed under for its nuclear provocations.

North Korea and the U.S. are now engaging in talks for the former to give up its nuclear program.

North Korea is hoping to establish diplomatic relations with the U.S. to remove threats and have its sanctions lifted through its denuclearization.

The high-level talks held last week, however, confirmed that the two states are still apart on how to achieve this, with North Korea afterward referring to the U.S. requests as “gangster-like.”