Pompeo meets North Korean official in push to rescue nuclear summit

is already minted.

All that is missing is the deal: The North Koreans have not agreed to the immediate – or even the staged – dismantlement of their nuclear weapons arsenal and infrastructure that the White House has demanded.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that Pompeo and North Korean emissary Kim Yong Chol will discuss “the denuclearization of the peninsula” and as long as that remains the focus “we’re going to continue to shoot for June 12.”

Yet Pompeo faces many obstacles.

Although the New York session marks Pompeo’s third sit-down with Kim Yong Chol, a four-star general who is North Korea’s former spy chief, Pompeo is a neophyte in nuclear diplomacy. The former Kansas congressman has been secretary of state for barely Photos released by the White House of then CIA Director Mike Pompeo, left, meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang over Easter weekend.

a month, after serving a little more than a year as CIA director.

Kim Yong Chol has been a top aide of North Korea’s ruling dynasty since the days of Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the current leader. He headed North Korea’s principal arms dealing apparatus and has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for that and other action. To visit New York, he had to obtain a special waiver from the State Department.

“Pompeo is a smart guy, but he doesn’t have experience with this. Kim Yong Chol has been involved in

every negotiation since 1992. He can beat any American who goes up against him,” said a veteran U.s.-korea negotiator who asked not to be quoted by name.

Pompeo also faces opposition in Washington. Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton, a longtime advocate of a change of government in Pyongyang, nearly sabotaged the summit with provocative comments suggesting the surrender of Libya’s nuclear infrastructure in 2003 would be a model for North Korea.