Pompeo seeks unity in dealing with N. Korea
TOKYO — America’s top diplomat said Saturday the U.S. will coordinate with allies Japan and South Korea on efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on the eve of the American’s fourth visit to North Korea. Pompeo was looking to arrange a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and chart a path toward denuclearization.
Japan has been wary of Trump’s initiative, fearing it could affect its security relationship with the U.S.
Pompeo said it was important to hear from the Japanese leader “so we have a fully coordinated and unified view.” Pompeo also pledged that during his meeting with Kim on Sunday, he would raise the cases of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.
Pompeo later planned stops in South Korea and China to review the negotiations.
“It is important for us to hear from you as I travel to Pyongyang to make sure that we are fully in sync with respect to missile programs, [chemical and biological weapons] programs,” Pompeo told Abe.
Trump is pressing to meet with Kim for a second time after their June summit in Singapore produced a vague agreement on denuclearization with few, if any, specifics.
Pompeo has repeatedly refused to discuss details of negotiations, including a U.S. position on North Korea’s demand for a declared end to the Korean War.
The U.S. and Japan have pushed for the North to compile and turn over a detailed list of its nuclear sites to be dismantled as a next step in the process; the North has rejected that.
Japan’s foreign minister, Taro Kano, said the accounting continues to be a priority for his country.
“Disclosing all nuclear inventories is the first step toward denuclearization,” he told reporters after Pompeo wrapped up his meeting in Tokyo.