Story highlights Clapper said North Korea would remain a nuclear state

Pompeo said US policy remained achieving a non-nuclear North Korea

Washington (CNN) Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, now a CNN contributor, said Sunday that he does not foresee a scenario where North Korea relinquishes its nuclear weapons.

"I'd love to see it, but I don't think that's in the cards," Clapper said on CNN's "State of the Union."

The former top intelligence official in the Obama administration said denuclearization was a "nonstarter" for the North Korean government, which he said viewed its nuclear weapons program as its "ticket to survival."

Clapper's assessment came as CIA Director Mike Pompeo reiterated Sunday that the Trump administration's goal was to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. Pompeo touted a unanimous United Nations Security Council vote earlier this month to increase sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program and said the US had seen China join the US in demanding that Pyongyang denuclearize.

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