US awaits Kim letter to give up N-arsenal
Pompeo claims ‘real progress’ in dialogue with N. Korea
New York, June 1: The United States and North Korea took a big stride on Thursday towards holding a historic nuclear summit, as US President Donald Trump awaited delivery of a letter from Kim Jong Un.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “real progress” had been made in New York talks with Kim’s right-hand man, while in Pyongyang the Korean leader re-committed to “de nuclear is at ion .” Washington is looking for signs that Kim is ready to accept that talks must lead to him giving up his nuclear arsenal and if the letter is well received it will mark an extraordinary diplomatic turn-around.
US officials said the North Korea delegation will come to Washington to meet Trump and deliver the message on Friday, one week after Trump had abruptly called off preparations for the planned June 12 summit in a sharply-worded letter of his own. Since that shortlived crisis, diplomats in both countries have conducted an intense flurry of negotiations, culminating on Thursday when Pompeo sat down in New York with Kim’s number two, Kim Yong Chol.
Simultaneously, Kim met Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and, according to official news agency KCNA, said the North’s “will for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula still remains unchanged and consistent and fixed.”
It is still not clear whether North Korea’s vision of “denuclearisation” in exchange for security guarantees and sanctions relief can be brought into line with Washington’s demand for a “complete, verifiable and irreversible” end to its nuclear programme.
However, Pompeo suggested things are moving in the right direction. — AFP