Thursday evening’s Asahi wrote that Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Ford told the press in Geneva on Wednesday that North Korea must relinquish its nuclear programs in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner. The paper speculated that this remark was aimed at dispelling concern that the United States may make concessions to Pyongyang in its talks with the DPRK. Ford was in Geneva to participate in the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.