N. Korea slams talks with Pompeo as ‘regrettable’
Both sides seek clarity on ‘denuclearization’ discussion at summit
The North Korean Foreign Ministry on Saturday slammed two days of talks with visiting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as “regrettable” and accused the United States of unilateral demands of denuclearization.
The statement said the U.S. betrayed the spirit of last month’s summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by making unilateral demands on “CVID,” or the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea. A spokesman called the talks “really disappointing.”
Pompeo told reporters that his talks with Kim Yong Chol had been “productive,” were carried out “in good faith” and had made “a great deal of progress” in some areas. He stressed, however, that “there’s still more work to be done” in other areas, much of which would be done by working groups that the two sides have set up to deal with specific issues.
But the North called the outcome of the follow-up talks “very concerning” because it has led to a “dangerous phase that might rattle our willingness for denuclearization that had been firm.”
“We expected that the U.S. side would come with productive measures conducive to building trust in line with the spirit of the North-U.S. summit and (we) considered providing something that would correspond to them,” the spokesman said, according to the South Korean news agency, Yonhap.
“However, the attitude and stance the United States showed in the first high-level meeting (between the countries) was no doubt regrettable,” the spokesman said, according to The Associated Press.
The statement, issued by an unidentified foreign ministry spokesman and carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, came hours after a second day of talks between Pompeo and senior North Korean officials. Both sides said they needed clarity on the parameters of an agreement to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
It was Pompeo’s third trip to Pyongyang since April and his first since last month’s historic summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Both Kim Yong Chol and Pompeo said they needed to “clarify” certain elements of their previous discussions, but provided no details. Pompeo left Pyongyang for Japan on Saturday afternoon but it wasn’t clear if he met with Kim Jong Un, as had been expected.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. remains “very firm” in its stance that three basic goals be met: complete denuclearization of North Korea, security assurances and the repatriation of remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War.