Second day of talks
> Pompeo, Yong Chol set stage for historic summit
NEW YORK: US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and high-ranking North Korean official Kim Yong Chol enter a second day of meetings in New York yesterday as they try to settle nuclear weapons disagreements and set the stage for a historic summit between their two leaders.
The two men left a 90-minute private dinner at a New York apartment on Wednesday night without providing details about their conversation.
The US has been demanding that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons programme amid reports that it is close to being able to launch a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the US.
Pyongyang has long argued that it needed nuclear weapons for its security.
There were reports earlier on Wednesday that South Korean officials were noting “quite significant” differences between the US and North Korea over denuclearisation.
The New York meetings follow highlevel conversations Pompeo held in North Korea in April and earlier in May and are intended to get negotiations between the two long-time adversaries back on track.
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jung Un had been scheduled to hold an unprecedented summit in Singapore on June 12.
Disputes between Washington and Pyongyang led Trump to cancel the meeting, only to see a renewal of diplomatic efforts in recent days.
Yong Chol, a close aide of Jong Un and vice-chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, is the most senior North Korean official to meet top American officials for talks in the US in nearly two decades.
In return for giving up its nuclear weapons, Washington could potentially loosen sanctions on Pyongyang, leading to possible food and other aid to impoverished North Korea and improved ties with South Korea.
A senior State Department official briefed reporters separately as Pompeo and Yong Chol met late on Wednesday.
The official, who asked not to be identified, said North Korea is “going to have to make clear what they are willing to do” in response to Washington’s demands.
Trump, the official said, “can make a fly or no-fly decision anytime he wants”, referring to the possible Singapore summit.
If not enough progress is made to lead to a productive meeting between Trump and Jong Un, the official said, “we will ramp up the pressure on them and we’ll be ready for the day that hopefully they are ready”.
The two Koreas are technically still at war because a peace agreement was never signed when fighting ended in 1953. – Reuters