Pompeo: Fate of summit rests with North Korea’s leader

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday he’s “very hopeful” that a planned U.S.-North Korean summit will proceed but laid the fate of the historic meeting squarely with Kim Jong Un, who faces U.S. demands for “rapid denuclearization.”

The decision about whether the June 12 meeting in Singapore between Kim and President Donald Trump happens is “ultimately up to Chairman Kim,” Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Lawmakers’ questioning of Pompeo followed Trump’s comment Tuesday that “there’s a very substantial chance” the meeting would not proceed as scheduled.

Trump told reporters Wednesday, “whatever it is, we will know next week about Singapore, and if we go I think it will be a great thing for North Korea.”

Amid the uncertainty, a White House team is headed to Singapore this weekend to work on logistics for the trip. White House spokesman Raj Shah said the effort would be led by Joe Hagin, deputy chief of staff for operations. Shah noted that an advance team goes out ahead of all scheduled presidential teams.

If it goes ahead, it would come just months after the North’s rapid progress toward attaining a nucleartipped missile that could strike America fueled fears of war.

But the North unexpectedly pulled out of planned peace talks with South Korea last week, objecting to U.S.-South Korean military exercises, and also threatened to abandon the planned Trump-Kim meeting, accusing the U.S. of a “one-sided demand” that it give up its nuclear weapons.