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N. Korea asks for ‘mature’ U.S. envoy
Spurned Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to possibly reset terms of Kim Jong Un’s outreach with Washington.
TOKYO — North Korea spurned the top U.S. diplomat as not sufficiently “mature” and offered a hand to Moscow on Thursday in back-to-back moves by Kim Jong Un to possibly reset the terms of his outreach with Washington.
The announcements came hours after North Korea announced it had tested a tactical guided weapon, its first public weapons test since the breakdown of a summit between President Donald Trump and Kim in February.
North Korea further jabbed Washington by announcing it no longer wants to talk to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in negotiations over Pyongyang’s nuclear program. The statement, carried on state media, demanded that Pompeo be replaced with someone who “is more careful and mature in communicating.”
Then, in Moscow, the Kremlin announced that Kim plans to meet President Vladimir Putin in Russia later this month. For Kim, the planned summit is an opportunity to expand his options and potential leverage with the United States and China, the North’s longtime ally.
Taken all together, the steps by Kim suggest a push toward bolder initiatives by the North with U.S. talks stalled after the collapse of the Hanoi, Vietnam, summit. But it does not appear to signal that Kim wants to break off the dialogue, experts said.
“Kim Jong Un does not intend to walk out of negotiations but shows that he can ‘seek a new way’ in the worst case,” said Lee JongSeok, a former South Korean unification minister who is now at the Sejong Institute.
The apparent snub of Pompeo could also force a revised approach from Trump.
Pompeo’s main offense appears, in the North Koreans’ eyes, seems to be when he referred to Kim as a “tyrant” during a Senate hearing.
Nevertheless, the North Korean regime is frustrated with denuclearization talks, analysts say, and by what it sees as unreasonable American demands to fully dismantle nuclear facilities before receiving relief from international economic sanctions.
A statement quoting senior North Korean official Kwon Jong Gun, reported by the Korean Central News Agency and picked up by Reuters, said that whenever Pompeo “pokes his nose in, talks between the two countries go wrong without any results even from the point close to success.”
“I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled,” he told KCNA. “Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the U.S., I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but a person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us.”
In testimony to a Senate subcommittee last week, Pompeo was asked whether he would agree that Kim is a “tyrant.”
“Sure. I’m sure I’ve said that,” Pompeo replied.
This is not the first time Pompeo has felt the heat of North Korean ire. He was accused of making “gangsterlike demands” in July, shortly after a visit to Pyongyang. But North Korea has been careful to avoid direct criticism of Trump, perhaps believing he is more likely to make concessions if he is flattered.
It was not clear what type of weapon the North Koreans fired in their test. Arms experts said the description of a tactical weapon — with guided flight, capable of carrying a powerful warhead and fired at a variety of targets — suggested a short-range missile rather a longer-range missile.
“Kim is trying to make a statement to the Trump administration that his military potential is growing by the day,” said Harry Kazianis, of the Center for the National Interest.