Pompeo seeks progress on trip to North Korea

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo headed off to North Korea on Friday under pressure to produce tangible progress at convincing the country to get rid of its nuclear weapons as President Donald Trump seeks a second summit with leader Kim Jong Un.

Pompeo departed Washington for a packed, three-day tour of East Asia that will take him to Japan, North Korea and then South Korea. He’s also scheduled to visit China, which will bring its own set of challenges, as relations with Beijing slide over trade tensions and accusations of election interference.

But it’s in Pyongyang on Sunday where Pompeo Pompeo could face his toughest diplomatic test. There’s been little visible progress since Trump and Kim made a vague agreement at their historic June summit in Singapore on “denuclearization,” with the two sides deadlocked over seemingly inflexible demands about how to achieve it.

Pompeo’s task might have been made harder by mixed messaging from within the administration over a timeline for the North to abandon its nukes and Trump’s claims about what’s he’s achieved in his own talks with Kim. At a rally last weekend, the president recalled — perhaps a little tongue in cheek — about how the North Korean leader had sent him “beautiful letters” and “we fell in love.”

Pompeo, who was snubbed by Kim on his last visit to Pyongyang in July, is expected to meet him this time, but experts say Kim may feel that he can get a better deal in a face-to-face with Trump.

“I’m not sure if we are going to get a whole lot of progress other than details of the next Trump-Kim summit,” said Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst on Korea and now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I think the North Koreans will try and save the actual negotiations for when Kim meets with Trump.”

Speaking on his plane Friday, Pompeo again declined to talk specifics.