Pompeo in Pyongyang seeks progress on North Korea nuke commitment
PYONGYANG, North Korea— Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met for nearly three hours Friday with a top North Korean official in Pyongyang to nail down specifics of commitments on denuclearization made at President Donald Trump’s summit with leader Kim Jong Un last month.
Pompeo has the crucial task of dispelling growing skepticism over how serious Kim is about giving up his nuclear arsenal and translating the upbeat rhetoric following the June 12 summit into concrete action.
Kim, who has been something of a point man on Washington negotiations for Kim Jong Un, said, “The more you come, more trust we can build between one another.”
Their talks lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes. They were held at a state guesthouse complex located a short drive from the gargantuan mausoleum where North Korea’s founding leader Kim Il Sung and his successor Kim Jong Il lie in state.
Pompeo was expected to hold further meetings on Saturday. It was not clear whether any progress was made in Friday’s discussions and whether Pompeo would be meeting directly with Kim Jong Un, as he had done on his previous visits.
On the flight to Pyongyang, Pompeo said both sides made commitments at the Singapore summit on the complete denuclearization of North Korea and on what a transformed relationship between their two countries might look like.
“On this trip, I’m seeking to fill in some details on these commitments and continue the momentum toward implementation of what the two leaders promised each other and the world. I expect that the DPRK is ready to do the same,” Pompeo said, using the initials for North Korea’s official name.
One hoped-for breakthrough would be the return of the remains of U.S. troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea committed at the summit to the “immediate repa- triation” of remains already identified, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Just before Pompeo’s arrival, the North’s state-run media lobbed a warning shot at Washington over its criticism of the North’s human rights record.
The criticism, published on North Korea’s government-run Uriminzokkiri website, said Washington should stop provoking the North with an “anachronistic human rights racket” at a time of diplomatic attempts to improve ties.
What position it will take on the nuclear issue appears to be anything but a done deal.
Doubts over the North’s intentions have grown amid reports it is continuing to expand facilities related to its nuclear and missile programs and that U.S. intelligence is skeptical about its intentions to give up its weapons.
AP Pyongyang bureau chief Eric Talmadge, in Tokyo, and writer Kim Tong-Hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.