Trump axes Pompeo’s visit to Pyongyang

Seoul: Plan to open liaison office in N. Korea delayed

SEOUL: South Korea said the abrupt cancellation of United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s trip to North Korea is having an “effect” on a controversial interKorean liaison office it planned to open by this month.

US President Donald Trump abruptly cancelled his top diplomat’s planned trip to North Korea on Friday, publicly acknowledging for the first time that his effort to get Pyongyang to denuclearise had stalled since his summit with the North’s leader.

South Korea’s presidential Blue House spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said yesterday that the cancelled visit “cannot be said to have zero effect” on the plan for the liaison office.

“We were thinking of the opening of the liaison office as part of a smooth series of schedules, which also included Secretary of State Pompeo’s North Korea visit followed by inter-Korean summit,” Kim said.

“Now that a new situation has arisen, there is a need to inspect it again accordingly.”

South Korea has been building a liaison office just over the border in North Korea, as part of efforts championed by the South’s President Moon Jae-in to improve ties between the two Koreas.

The office, which the South Korean government said planned to open by August, raised concern among opposition lawmakers, analysts and local media that the transfer of material for the office could violate UN and US sanctions against North Korea.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman repeated its stance yesterday that all the material for the liaison office are for the office’s operation as well as the convenience of South Korean personnel, and does not give any economic gain to North Korea. — Reuters