Pompeo says he will meet North Korea number two in New York
Mike Pompeo's meeting with Kim Yong Chol later this week comes with the
two sides at loggerheads nearly five months after a historic summit in
June
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday (Nov 4) he
will meet this week in New York with North Korea's number two to discuss
denuclearisation and a possible second summit between US President
Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"I expect we'll make some real progress, including an effort to make
sure that the summit between our two leaders can take place where we can
make substantial steps toward denuclearisation," Pompeo said on CBS's
"Face the Nation."
Pompeo's meeting with Kim Yong Chol later this week comes with the two
sides at loggerheads nearly five months after a historic summit in June
in which Trump and Kim pledged to work toward the denuclearisation of
the Korean peninsula.
North Korea's foreign ministry warned earlier in the week that Pyongyang
will "seriously" consider reviving its nuclear weapons programme unless
US sanctions are lifted.
Pompeo dismissed the statement, telling "Fox News Sunday," "I'm not worried about that."
"We are very focused. We know with whom we are negotiating, we know what
their positions (are) and President Trump has made his position very
clear," Pompeo said.
He added that there would be "no economic relief until we have achieved our ultimate objective."
News of the meeting, and the possibility of another summit, also comes
just two days before crucial US midterm elections seen as a referendum
on Trump.
Trump has often pointed to the detente with North Korea - the subject of
saber-rattling rhetoric and soaring tensions early in his term - as a
signature foreign policy accomplishment.
Pompeo emphasised in both television appearances that there have been no
missile or nuclear tests since the summit in Singapore, and remains of
US troops killed during the Korean War have been returned.
"We've had success in just a handful of months since this past June, and
we continue to make good progress. I'm confident that we'll advance the
ball again this week when I'm in New York City," he said on CBS.
SLOW PROGRESS
But the progress has fallen well short of the promise of the summit,
with Washington pushing to maintain sanctions against the North until
its "final, fully verified denuclearisation," and Pyongyang condemning
US demands as "gangster-like."
"The improvement of relations and sanctions are incompatible," said the
foreign ministry statement, released under the name of the director of
the foreign ministry's Institute for American Studies.
"What remains to be done is the US corresponding reply," it added.
Kim Yong Chol, Pompeo's counterpart in the talks, is a general, a former
top intelligence chief and right-hand man to the North Korean leader.
He visited the White House in the diplomatic run-up to the Singapore
summit, and has been Pompeo's chief interlocutor in the months since.
In mid-October, Pompeo evoked the possibility of a second summit, preceded by talks with Kim Yong Chol.
"We're working on finding dates and times and places that will work for each of the two leaders," Pompeo said at the time.
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