Pompeo: N. Korea to allow inspectors into nuclear testing site
SEOUL, South Korea — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that in his meeting with Kim Jong Un on Sunday, the leader of North Korea had agreed to allow inspectors into a key nuclear testing site the North has claimed it blew up, a down payment on the country’s commitment to denuclearize the country.
Pompeo described his few hours on the ground in Pyongyang, the capital, as a “good trip.”
The two men discussed “the upcoming second summit” between Trump and Kim, refining options for the time and place of the next meeting between the two leaders, said Heather Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman. But no date or place was announced.
The office of President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, who was briefed by Pompeo after his North Korea trip, said the United States and the North had agreed to hold a new summit between their leaders as early as possible.
On Sunday, Pompeo said nothing about making significant breakthroughs, except for the North’s agreement to allow inspectors into Punggye Ri, a network of underground tunnels where the North has conducted all of its nuclear tests.
Missing from Pompeo’s account of his two-hour meeting with Kim, which was followed by a 90-minute lunch, was any mention of the first step toward denuclearization: an inventory from the North of all its nuclear weapons, its production and storage sites, its missiles and missile launchers.
The United States has said that list would form the basis of determining whether the North was being truthful — Washington has compiled its own list, based on intelligence sources — and to set a schedule for dismantlement.