North Korea is “unlikely” to give up its nuclear weapons program, America’s most senior intelligence chief has said, in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s optimistic comments on securing a breakthrough. Dan Coats, the US director of national intelligence, said that North Korea’s leaders see keeping their nuclear arsenal as crucial to “regime survival”. Mr Coats also warned there was evidence that Kim Jong-un’s regime was taking actions “inconsistent” with its declared support for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. The remarks, which came during an appearance by six US intelligence chiefs before the Senate Intelligence Committee, jar with the US president’s public views on the stand-off. Mr Trump has repeatedly played up the prospect of North Korea denuclearising since he met with Kim, the country’s leader, during a historic summit in Singapore in June 2018. The US president tweeted shortly after that meeting that “there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea”. On another occasion he joked that him and Kim “fell in love” with each other. Mr Coats is a former Republican senator who serves in Mr Trump’s cabinet. The role he holds was created after the September 11 attacks and co-ordinates America’s 17 different intelligence agencies. In his prepared…