Pompeo counters North Korean flak by saying nuclear talks are on track
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sought Sunday to downplay North Korea’s harsh complaints about
U.S. demands and insisted that negotiations on Pyongyang’s nuclear disarmament were making progress.
Speaking in Tokyo, Pompeo suggested that North Korea’s public statements were very different from what he heard privately during two days of talks with the country’s former spy chief, Kim Yong
Chol.
“People are going to make certain comments after meetings,” Pompeo said at a news conference with the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea.
“If I paid attention to what the press said, I’d go nuts, and I refuse to do that.”
He asserted that the government of Kim Jong Un remained committed to a “broad definition of denuclearization” that would proceed “in parallel” with North Korea’s demands, including a “peace regime” that officially ends the half-century-old Korean War and provides the north with security guarantees.
Later, Pompeo flew to Hanoi and urged North Korea to pursue Vietnam’s “miracle” of prosperity and security.
On Saturday, shortly after Pompeo had departed Pyongyang and claimed “progress” in “productive talks,” the North Korean Foreign Ministry blasted the “regrettable” U.S. attitude and its “unilateral, gangster-like” demands.
Some translations used the descriptor “robber” instead of “gangster,” but the point was the same: Pyongyang contended the United States was demanding everything and offering nothing, and warned of “a dangerous phase” that could “rattle our willingness for denuclearization.”
The tough talk might have been part of a negotiating strategy and a need, especially for domestic consumption, to appear strong in the face of a longtime, bitter opponent.
In fact, North Korea has already chalked up several wins in its dealings with
Trump, including Kim’s recognition on the world stage as a statesman worthy of meeting with an American president, and Trump’s sudden acquiescence to the North’s demands to end joint military exercises with South Korea.
But Pyongyang’s comments and the stark contrast to the way Pompeo portrayed the meetings showed the complexity of negotiations that many experts warn could take years, if not decades.
In addition to reflecting deep mutual distrust, the exchange also dampened what many see as President Donald Trump’s overwhelmingly optimistic assessment after his summit with Kim June 12 in Singapore.
At the Singapore event, Trump and Kim agreed to a vaguely worded vow to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.” No details of what that meant or how it would be achieved were mentioned.
North Korea wants a “phased” process that grants it economic relief and security that guarantees the survival of Kim’s dynasty, in exchange, gradually, for disarmament.
Pompeo repeated Sunday, however, that some of those steps will be taken simultaneously only after North Korea has shown to be verifiably destroying its arsenal. The economic sanctions will remain in place until the process is complete, Pompeo said.
“What’s most important is what the North Koreans understand, and the demands that the world is making of North Korea ... (are) unmistakable,” Pompeo said.
And if those demands “were gangsterlike,” he added, “the world is a gangster” because the same demands are part of a United Nations Security Council resolution.