FBI Director Christopher Wray; CIA Director Gina Haspel; and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Gen. Robert Ashley, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency testify at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on “Worldwide Threats.” The intelligence leaders discussed North Korea, Russia, China and cybersecurity among other topics. AFP
WASHINGTON — Directly contradicting President Donald Trump, US intelligence agencies told Congress on Tuesday that North Korea is unlikely to dismantle its nuclear arsenal, that the Islamic State group remains a threat and that the Iran nuclear deal is working. The chiefs made no mention of a crisis at the US-Mexican border for which Trump has considered declaring a national emergency.
Intelligence information does not support the idea that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will eliminate his nuclear weapons
Their analysis stands in sharp contrast to Trump’s almost singular focus on security gaps at the border as the biggest threat facing the United States.
Top security officials including Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray, Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats presented an update to the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday on their annual assessment of global threats.
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They warned of an increasingly diverse range of security dangers around the globe, from North Korean nuclear weapons to Chinese cyberespionage to Russian campaigns to undermine Western democracies.
Coats said intelligence information does not support the idea that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will eliminate his nuclear weapons and the capacity for building more — a notion that is the basis of the US negotiating strategy.
“We currently assess that North Korea will seek to retain its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) capabilities and is unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons and production capability because its leaders ultimately view nuclear weapons as critical to regime survival,” Coats told the committee.
The “Worldwide Threat Assessment” report on which Coats based his testimony said US intelligence continues to “observe activity inconsistent with” full nuclear disarmament by the North.
The report said Kim’s support at his June 2018 Singapore summit with Trump for “complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” is a formulation linked to an end to American military deployments and exercises involving nuclear weapons.
