Tangled Clinton Web: Foundation received millions from investors as Russia acquired part of US uranium reserves

The relationship between former President Bill Clinton and a group of wealthy Canadian mining investors who made significant contributions to the Clinton family's foundation has come under scrutiny after their uranium company ended up in the hands of the Russians.
That deal, which gave the Russians access to part of the U.S. uranium reserves, all started with Bill Clinton's dealings with friend Frank Giustra.
Peter Schweizer, author of the forthcoming book, "Clinton Cash," that details family foundation donations and alleged favors, told Fox News that Clinton traveled in 2005 to Kazakhstan, where Giustra, a Canadian investor, was trying to "get control to buy a couple of uranium mines." "And he became, really, partners, in a way, with Bill Clinton-- working on philanthropic activities," he said.
At the same time, Schweizer said, "Giustra has been involved in helping to facilitate speaking engagements -- for the Clintons."
Watch "Fox News Reporting: The Tangled Clinton Web" at 10 p.m. ET on Friday, on Fox News Channel.

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• Preview: 'Fox News Reporting: The Tangled Clinton Web'

New York Times reporter Jo Becker, who spent months investigating the deal before publishing a story Thursday, said Guistra and Clinton were both "whisked to the [palace] of President Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan, and it's a fascinating story, because everybody walked away from the table that night with something."
Clinton, Becker said, "basically endorsed" the "progress" Kazakhstan had made on its democracy, though Nazarbayev was elected "with 90 percent-plus of the vote ... in an election that was widely criticized as being rigged."
Schweizer said Clinton even held a press conference with the president and praised his human rights record.
In the end, Giustra got what he wanted.
"The bottom line is after they leave, a couple of days later, Frank Giustra gets his uranium concessions, which end up being enormously lucrative to him and to a small group of Canadian mining investors," Schweizer said.
Becker said his company went from "a worthless shell company overnight -- became this ...huge uranium mining deal."
And then soon after that, Becker said, "Bill Clinton got a huge donation, $31 million from Frank Guistra to his charitable foundation, followed by a pledge to donate $100 million more."
Call by Fox News to the Kazakhstan Embassy were not returned.
Reached for comment, Giustra told Fox News he considers this an old story, and he's not interested in politics.
Meanwhile, his defenders insist that no undue influence was exerted in Kazakhstan because the deal did not require the Kazakh government's approval.
However, Schweizer said, corporate records "indicate very, very clearly that the Kazakh government did have to sign off and approve."
This includes, he said, a memorandum of understanding from 2005 "between the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Kazatomprom, which is the atomic agency in Kazakh government, so there's no way that they can argue the Kazakh government was not a party to these negotiations."
The story doesn't end there.
According to Schweizer, Kazakh officials wanted to take an equity stake in Westinghouse, a U.S. company that works in the civilian nuclear field.
That would require a review by the U.S. government.
So the potential investors came to America to see the man who could make things happen.
Becker said Guistra arranged for Kazatomprom officials to go to Clinton's house in New York.
"When I first contacted both the Clinton Foundation, Mr. Clinton's spokesman, and Mr. Guistra, they denied any such meeting ever took place," Becker said. "And then, when we told them, 'Well, we'd already talked to the head of Kazatomprom,' who not only told us all about the meeting, but actually has a picture of him and Bill at the home in Chappaqua, you know, and that he proudly displayed ... on his office wall, they then acknowledged that, yes, the meeting had taken place."
So what happened to Giustra's company that benefited from that deal in Kazakhstan? After a merger, it became a uranium giant called Uranium One.
And then, the Russians bought it. That's where the American uranium comes into play.
"Uranium One became very active in acquiring uranium assets actually in the United States itself by 2008, 2009, they were a particularly attractive target for the Russian government," Schweizer said.
And the Russians acquired that target -- acquiring what would amount to 50 percent of projected uranium output by 2015.
In other words, Russia now controls what was projected to be up to half of America's uranium.
Calls by Fox News to Uranium One were not immediately returned.
Meanwhile, former Secretary of State and current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton factors into that deal.
According to Schweizer, in order for that deal to go through, it needs federal U.S. government approval.
"And one of those people that has to approve that deal is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton," Schweizer said.
On Thursday, the Clinton camp pushed back. Campaign spokesman Brian Fallon issued this statement:
"No one has produced a shred of evidence that Hillary Clinton ever took action as Secretary of State in order to support the interests of donors to the Clinton Foundation. To suggest the State Department, under then-Secretary Clinton, exerted undue influence in the U.S. government's review of the sale of Uranium One is utterly baseless. It mischaracterizes the nature of the State Department's participation in such reviews, and also ignores the range of other regulatory agencies that ultimately supported this sale. It is impossible to view this allegation as anything other than just another in the many partisan conspiracy theories advanced in the Clinton Cashbook."
Schweizer told Fox News that when Clinton was the senator from New York, she objected to a foreign government owning U.S. ports and pointed to the serious implications of the Russians getting uranium.
"We're talking about things that related to the nuclear industry. We're talking about the Russian government," he said, noting Russia already provides equipment to Iran.
Further, he said the Clinton Foundation was receiving "tens of millions of dollars from shareholders in Uranium One who wanted the Russian government to acquire them because it would be a financial landfall."
In the end, a Russian company, essentially controlled by Vladimir Putin, will now be in charge of a substantial portion of American uranium.
Given that Russia sends uranium to its client state, Iran, American uranium could well be sent to the very nation the Obama administration is now negotiating with to try to slow its ability to develop a nuclear weapon.

Carter reveals Russians hacked Pentagon's network

Defense Secretary Ash Carter revealed on Thursday that the Department of Defense suffered a cybersecurity breach after Russian hackers infiltrated an unclassified defense computer network earlier this year.
In remarks at Stanford University, Carter said the DOD was able to identify the intruders within 24 hours and kicked them out, but added,"I still worry about what we don't know because this was only one attack."
A Pentagon official told Fox News that the Russian hacking of the Department of Defense was “totally separate” from recent hacks at the White House and State Department earlier this month and in March, respectively.
The revelation comes as a new Pentagon cybersecurity strategy, laid out for the first time publicly, will allow the U. S. military to use cyberwarfare as an option in conflicts with enemies.
The 33-page strategy says the Defense Department "should be able to use cyber operations to disrupt an adversary's command and control networks, military-related critical infrastructure and weapons capabilities."
Carter, who was sworn in last February, said one way the department is responding is to be more transparent about cybersecurity.
"I think it will be useful to us for the world to know that, first of all, we're going to protect ourselves, we're going to defend ourselves," he told reporters traveling with him to California. He added that the new strategy is "more clear and more specific about everything, including (U.S.) offense."
Cyberattacks against U.S. government and industry have grown increasingly more severe and sophisticated. The new strategy says, "During heightened tensions or outright hostilities, DOD must be able to provide the president with a wide range of options for managing conflict escalation."
It adds that, as part of those options, the military must have cyber capabilities that can "achieve key security objectives with precision, and to minimize loss of life and destruction of property."
The announcements come on the heels of President Obama's decision earlier this month to authorize financial sanctions against malicious overseas hackers or companies that use cyberespionage to steal U.S. trade secrets. Those companies could include state-owned corporations in Russia, China or other countries that have long been named as cyber-adversaries.

Fox News Poll: Rubio jumps to head of 2016 GOP pack, Clinton honesty questioned

The Bush dynasty is a negative for voters and Marco Rubio is seen as a leader of the future, as the Florida senator jumps to the head of the GOP pack.  The Clinton dynasty is a plus -- and even though Hillary could have an honesty problem, she dominates the Democratic side.  And both the Republican faithful (with their crowded field) and the Democratic faithful (with their sole favorite) are happy with their range of 2016 choices.
These are some of the findings from the latest Fox News poll on the 2016 presidential election.  Here are some more:
Announcing your candidacy helps your poll numbers.  Florida Sen. Marco Rubio receives a five percentage-point bump after his April 13 announcement and has the backing of 13 percent in the race for the Republican nomination -- just a touch over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker who gets 12 percent among self-identified GOP primary voters.  Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul comes in at 10 percent, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee earn 9 percent each and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz gets 8 percent. 
CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson each garner 6 percent.  Last month Christie was at 4 percent and Carson at 11 percent.
White evangelical Christians are most likely to support Huckabee (13 percent), Paul (11 percent), Cruz and Rubio (10 percent each).
Top picks among the Tea Party include Walker (19 percent), Rubio (14 percent), Paul (13 percent), Huckabee and Cruz (10 percent each).
In the quest for the Democratic nomination, former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton remains on top with 62 percent support among self-identified Democratic primary voters.  She’s the only declared candidate on the Democratic side.  Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (12 percent) and Vice President Joe Biden (9 percent) lag far behind.
Despite far fewer options, Democratic primary voters (71 percent) are a tad bit more likely than their GOP counterparts (67 percent) to say they are satisfied with their 2016 choices.
The Bush dynasty is seen as a negative while the Clinton dynasty is a positive.  By a 58-34 percent margin, voters say being related to previous presidents is a disadvantage for Jeb Bush, yet by a 52-39 percent margin they think it’s an advantage for Hillary Clinton.
Republicans say the Bush dynasty is a negative, yet Democrats view the Clinton dynasty as a positive.

A leader of the Future or the Past?
Who’s a leader of the future?  Rubio tops that list.  Voters see him “more as a leader of the future” (50 percent) than the past (21 percent) by a 29-point margin.
That dwarfs the numbers who see Paul (by 12 points), Warren (by 11 points) and Walker (by 10 points) as leaders of the future.  By a 2-point margin, more see Clinton as a leader of the future (43 percent) than the past (41 percent).
Biden (by 33 points) and Bush (by 17 points) are the only two seen more as leaders of the past.

Honest and Trustworthy
Of those tested on the poll, Clinton, Biden and Cruz fare the worst on the “honest and trustworthy” question.
Currently, 45 percent of voters think Clinton is honest.  That’s mostly unchanged from last month, but down 9 points from 54 percent a year ago (April 2014).  She lost ground among men (-10 points), women (-9 points) and Democrats (-7 points).  Moreover, only 33 percent of independents see Clinton as honest. That’s down 13 points since last year.
Overall, Clinton’s honesty score is negative six (45 percent “yes, she is” minus 51 percent “no, she isn’t”), Biden’s is negative four (44-48 percent) and for Cruz it’s negative one (37-38 percent).
On the positive side: Rubio (+13), Paul (+12) and Carson (+7) score best on the honesty measure.  Bush (+4) and Walker (+4) are also in positive territory.
Clinton is the only one who has a majority saying she is not honest and trustworthy (51 percent).  Still, it’s important to remember that, many on the GOP side are largely unfamiliar to voters.  As a result, 43 percent are unable to rate Carson’s honesty, 34 percent are unable to rate Walker, 25 percent are unable to rate Cruz and 24 percent Rubio.
Voters are getting more familiar with Rubio since his announcement.  The portion unable to rate his honesty dropped from 39 percent last month to 24 percent today.  Being better known cuts both ways:  both the number saying Rubio is honest (+10) and the number saying he isn’t (+6 points) went up since March.

Hypothetical Matchups
Clinton bests each of the Republicans tested in hypothetical matchups for a 2016 presidential contest: she leads Paul 46-43 percent, Bush 45-41 percent, Rubio 46-42 percent, Cruz 47-42 percent and Walker 46-40 percent.  In each of these matchups the candidates are at or within the margin of sampling error of each other.

Pollpourri
The poll asks voters whether Clinton “seems too old” and if Rubio “seems too young” to be president.  Nope. And nope.  About one in five (19 percent) says Clinton seems too old and the same number says Rubio seems too young (19 percent).
Those ages 35-54 are the most likely to feel Rubio seems too young (22 percent).  That drops to 15 percent among voters under 35.  Rubio is 43 years old.
Voters ages 65 and over are the most likely to say Clinton seems too old (26 percent) and they are more than twice as likely as voters under 35 to feel that way (11 percent).  Clinton is 67.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,012 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from April 19-21, 2015. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. The results among Democratic and Republican primary voters have an error of plus or minus five points.

Climate Cartoon

House report: Cash-strapped IRS prioritized bonuses, union activity over helping taxpayers

While facing budget cuts, the IRS nevertheless prioritized worker bonuses, union activity and the implementation of President Obama’s health care law over assisting taxpayers during tax season, according to a new report released Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee.
The findings, in a Republican-led report, were released ahead of a subcommittee hearing Wednesday morning with IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
At the hearing, Koskinen stressed that the agency is significantly under-funded, and those cuts have consequences.
He said less funding means there will be a decline in service for taxpayers, and pledged that service would improve if they got more money.
"Customer service -- both on the phone and in person -- has been far worse than anyone would want. It's simply a matter of not having enough people to answer the phones and provide service at our walk-in sites as a result of cuts to our budget," he said.

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• IRS' cash flow woes bankrupted at hearing

• Report: IRS diverts funding away from customer service

But Republicans argued the IRS is making bad spending choices. "I would just suggest to you that there's hardly a person in America today that isn't doing more with less, that hasn't tightened their belt and learned how to work with less," Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., said.
The IRS has faced congressional budget cuts of $1.2 billion since 2010, and has faced criticism in recent years over the targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status and reports of wasteful spending. The new report said the cuts were intended to “force the IRS to manage its resources more effectively and immediately stop inappropriate activities.”
However, while cuts were made in part to focus the agency on customer service, the report asserted that “spending decisions entirely under the IRS’s control led to 16 million fewer taxpayers receiving IRS assistance this filing season.”
The panel found the IRS had cut customer services while continuing to hand out bonuses to employees, allowing staff to conduct union activities, failing to collect debt owed by employees of the federal government and spending over $1.2 billion on implementing ObamaCare.
Even though the IRS’s budget for taxpayer assistance remained flat from fiscal year 2014 to 2015, the level of over-the-phone customer service significantly decreased, with the agency shifting staff in customer service to focus on written correspondence instead of telephone calls. Meanwhile, the number of calls doubled in that period.
The panel found that wait times increased from 18.7 minutes to 34.4 minutes, and answered calls decreased from 6.6 million to 5.3 million.
“In January 2015, the IRS commissioner estimated that taxpayer service would decline while delays in tax refunds would increase. While the IRS commissioner has blamed this solely on budget cuts, in reality the IRS deliberately diverted resources away from taxpayer services,” the report found.
Despite the drop in service, there was no significant decrease in bonuses for IRS employees. Notably, in November 2014, despite another round of budget cuts at the IRS, Koskinen announced that employees would receive bonuses at the same level as for the previous year, unless they had substantiated conduct issues, the report said.
While acknowledging that the agency has cut the amount of time spent on discretionary union activity, the report questioned why it could not have been decreased further, asserting that “the amount of resources spent on discretionary union activity could have assisted nearly 2.5 million taxpayers.”
The report noted that while the IRS’s implementation of ObamaCare was deemed a success by Koskinen, “the IRS achieved this supposed success by prioritizing … implementation over other activities, including core responsibilities like taxpayer assistance.”
The panel also claimed the agency had failed to pursue recommendations for streamlining and reducing waste and abuse. It concluded that what it called “large areas of systemic waste and inefficiency” present in 2010 remained unaddressed in 2015, and highlighted in particular that the IRS spent $2.1 million on litigation services that the government could have conducted itself.

Obama facing Dem revolt on trade push, Reid says ‘hell no’

President Obama is facing a Democratic revolt over ambitious trade initiatives that are dividing the party, leading to tensions with everyone from Senate party leader Harry Reid to liberal icon Elizabeth Warren.
The disagreements erupted on Wednesday as leaders of the Senate Finance Committee tried to proceed with a vote on trade legislation, but liberal opposition quickly delayed the process.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a fierce opponent of the trade push, invoked a Senate scheduling rule to sideline the committee's actions for hours. "This job-killing trade deal has been negotiated in secret," said Sanders, who made a lengthy Senate speech denouncing the legislation.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, vowed the committee would finish the bill Wednesday. "I don't care how much time it takes," he said.
The flare-up was just one of many in the Democratic ranks. In a blunt challenge to the president, Reid told reporters earlier this week: "I'm not only no, I'm hell no" on Obama's proposal.

More on this...

• Trade becomes a wedge issue among Democrats

The Senate Finance Committee eventually endorsed Obama's request for "fast track" legislation late Wednesday, which would renew presidential authority to present trade deals that Congress can endorse or reject but not amend. The committee voted 20-6 to pass the fast track bill. The only committee Republican voting no was Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina.
If the House and Senate eventually comply, the legislation would ease the way for sweeping trade deals. Obama wants "fast-track" powers to help move free-trade proposals such as the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership.
This, in turn, would make it easier to approve deals like the controversial TPP.
But that authority, and those proposals, face resistance from labor unions and liberal groups who say free-trade pacts hurts U.S. jobs.
They lost a round Wednesday. The Finance Committee narrowly defeated a "currency manipulation" measure that Obama aides said would unravel the Pacific Rim deal. Votes for and against the provision were about evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, highlighting the unusual -- and possibly tenuous -- political alignments on trade.
The push-back now has Obama on defense, as he tries to muster a bipartisan coalition.
"I would not be doing this trade deal if I did not think it was good for the middle class," Obama said in an interview Tuesday with MSNBC. "When you hear folks make a lot of suggestions about how bad this trade deal is, when you dig into the facts, they are wrong."
In the interview, Obama specifically called out deal critic Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democratic senator and hero of liberal groups.
"I love Elizabeth. We're allies on a whole host of issues. But she's wrong on this," Obama said.
Few issues divide Democrats more than trade. Obama, like former President Bill Clinton, supports free trade, but many Democratic lawmakers do not.
Clinton's and Obama's stands -- and liberal groups' opposition -- pose a dilemma for Hillary Clinton, the former first lady now seeking the presidency herself. Campaigning Tuesday in New Hampshire, she declined to say whether she supports the Pacific-rim proposal.
"We need to build things, too," Clinton said, taking a pro-manufacturing stance generally embraced by both parties. "We have to do our part in making sure we have the capabilities and skills to be competitive," she said, while getting back to "a much more focused effort, in my opinion, to try to produce those capacities here at home."
This week, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, called the trade deal "fragile," noting that Democratic support is necessary. Republican sources say Obama needs to impress his desire for this trade pact on his Democratic allies.
Amid the divisions in Democratic ranks, Fox News has learned there is an effort afoot among congressional Democrats to court just enough from their side not to embarrass the president.
But Senate Finance Committee member Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., says the administration must press China to stop manipulating its currency, even though China isn't a party to the Pacific-rim negotiations. "I'm disappointed in the efforts by President Obama," Schumer said at a committee hearing Tuesday.
If a nation keeps its currency value artificially low, it can boost exports by making local products more affordable to foreigners. Economists disagree on whether China still engages in the practice, and the Obama administration says it addresses currency manipulation in the fast-track bill.
Republicans generally support trade pacts. But Obama can't count on them alone to push the fiercely debated bills through the GOP-controlled House and Senate.
Most or all Finance Committee Republicans support fast track. Democratic supporters include Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Tom Carper of Delaware and Mark Warner of Virginia.
Committee passage would move the bill to the full Senate. The House has yet to vote on fast track this year.

ACLU sues feds in bid to make Catholic groups provide abortion to illegal immigrants

Providing food and shelter to illegal immigrants isn't enough for federally-funded Catholic organizations, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing the federal government to help ensure the religious organizations provide abortion and contraception to them as well.
The suit aims to obtain government records related to reproductive healthcare policy for unaccompanied immigrant children in the care of federally funded Catholic agencies, which do not believe in abortion.
“We have heard reports that Catholic bishops are prohibiting Catholic charities from allowing teens in their care to access critical services like contraception and abortion- even if the teenager has been raped on her journey to the United States or in a detention facility,” said ACLU staff attorney Brigitte Amiri.

“Let’s be clear about the ACLU’s purpose here: ending the productive and successful partnership between the Catholic Church and the federal government on the care and shelter of vulnerable populations."- Kevin Appleby, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Almost 60,000 unaccompanied minors illegally crossed over from Mexico border last year. Nearly a third were young girls, and Amiri claims up to 80 percent were victims of sexual assault.
The government contracts with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to care for those children until they can either reunite with a relative or face an immigration hearing. The organization has received $73 million overall from the government- with $10 million coming in to care for unaccompanied minors in 2013 alone.
A letter from the USCCB shows the organization strongly objecting to a regulation proposed by the Obama administration requiring contractors provide abortions to immigrants who have been raped.
“The Catholic Bishops are taking millions of dollars in federal grants- and then imposing their beliefs on this vulnerable population who they are supposed to serve… and that raises serious concerns under the separation of church and state provision in our Constitution,” said Amiri.
But the bishops are hitting back at the ACLU- maintaining they are well within their rights to exercise religious freedom while taking care of the minors.
“For decades, we have provided exemplary services to this vulnerable population without facilitating abortions, and despite ACLU’s extreme assertions to the contrary, the law not only permits our doing so, but protects it,” said Kevin Appleby, Director of the USCCB's Office of Migration Policy and Public Affairs.
Appleby says instances in which a client under his organization’s care asks for a service contrary to the beliefs of the Church are rare. He insists the USCCB informs the government of a girl’s desire to access reproductive healthcare if the government has legal custody of that child.
“Let’s be clear about the ACLU’s purpose here: ending the productive and successful partnership between the Catholic Church and the federal government on the care and shelter of vulnerable populations. Denying us the freedom to serve betrays the very children the ACLU is purportedly attempting to help,” he told Fox News.
The ACLU is only suing for federal documents on the USCCB’s policies at the moment, but will consider further legal actions depending on what those documents indicate. The government has not yet officially responded to the ACLU’s request.

China reportedly issues new warning over North Korean nuclear production

Chinese nuclear experts reportedly warned the U.S. earlier this year that North Korea's nuclear arsenal is larger than previously estimated, creating a heightened security threat to the U.S. and its East Asian allies.
The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that by Beijing's estimate, North Korea may already have manufactured 20 nuclear warheads and is capable of producing enough weapons-grade uranium to double that amount by next year. U.S. experts have previously estimated that North Korea has between 10 and 16 nuclear weapons.
The Chinese estimates were presented to U.S. nuclear specialists at a closed-door meeting at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing this past February. The Journal reported that Chinese military representatives and experts on the North's nuclear program were at the meeting.
Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford University professor and former head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory who attended the February meeting, told the Journal that estimates about North Korea's nuclear program involved a sizable amount of guesswork. He estimated that North Korea currently could have no more than 12 weapons, and as many as 20 in 2016.
"I’m concerned that by 20, they actually have a nuclear arsenal," Hecker said. "The more they believe they have a fully functional nuclear arsenal and deterrent, the more difficult it’s going to be to walk them back from that."
Washington has not had high-level talks with Pyongyang since 2012, when North Korea conducted a banned nuclear missile test. In the intervening time, the U.S. has relied on China to use its economic leverage to put pressure on the impoverished nation's missile program while the Obama administration works toward a nuclear deal with Iran.
However, the Journal reports that relations between China and North Korea have deteriorated since the death of dictator Kim Jong Il in 2011 and the ascension of Xi Jinping to China's leadership the following year.
The Journal report comes a day after the U.S. envoy to the long-stalled six-nation talks said that North Korea should learn from the emerging nuclear deal with Iran that Washington is willing to engage its adversaries if it has a "credible" negotiating partner.
"The entire international community is looking for this type of policy shift in Pyongyang, and that policy shift would be positively responded to," Sydney Seiler told a Washington think tank Tuesday.
But Seiler said there was no sign in two years that Pyongyang is willing to denuclearize, adding that the country would need to halt its nuclear program and missile launches while any talks are underway.