CIA director met Kim in North Korea, says Trump
US prez says five venues under consideration for meet
WASHINGTON:US President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed CIA director Mike Pompeo made a top secret visit to Pyongyang to meet Kim Jong Un, and that plans are under way for a summit with the North Korean leader.
“Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea... Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!” Trump tweeted.
The meeting over the Easter weekend between Kim and Pompeo — who is Trump’s secretary of state nominee — was the first such high-level interaction since 2000, when then secretary of state Madeleine Albright travelled to meet Kim Jong Il, the current leader’s father. That Trump despatched Pompeo to meet Kim is further indication that he has tended to use US intelligence to conduct talks with the North Korean leadership.
The CIA has been working with its North Korean counterpart, the Reconnaissance Intelligence Bureau. Pompeo has also been in touch with the director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, Suh Hoon, who, according to an official cited by The New York Times, brokered Kim’s invitation to Trump.
Trump earlier alluded to the meet at a conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “We’ve also started talking to North Korea directly. We have had direct talks at very high levels — extremely high levels — with North Korea,” he had said.
However, he shared no details, except that he hoped to meet the North Korean leader “probably in early June or a little before” and that five venues are being considered for the summit, none of which are in the US.
The summit will be closely followed the world over, New Delhi included, as the outcome will have global ramifications.
Trump seems keen to address the Korean question. On Tuesday he said, “I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong Un. And hopefully that will be a success. And maybe it will be, and maybe it won’t be. We don’t know. But we’ll see what happens. But I can say this: They do respect us. We are respectful of them.”
SOUTH SAYS DISCUSSING PEACE DEAL WITH NORTH KOREA
South Korea said on Wednesday it is considering how to change a decades-old armistice with North Korea into a peace agreement.
Old rivals North Korea and South Korea are preparing for a summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, on April 27, with a bid to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War a major factor in talks.
“As one of the plans, we are looking at a possibility of shifting the Korean peninsula’s armistice to a peace regime,” a high-ranking South Korean presidential official told reporters.
“But that’s not a matter than can be resolved between the two Koreas alone. It requires close consultations with other concerned nations, as well as North Korea,” the official said.
South Korea and a Us-led U.N. force are technically still at war with North Korea after the Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
The Us-led United Nations Command, Chinese forces and North Korea signed the 1953 armistice, to which South Korea is not a party.
Amid the diplomatic flurry, CNN reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping also planned to visit Pyongyang soon, after North Korean leader Kim made a surprise trip last month to China, its major sole ally.