Pompeo: Meeting with Kim ‘step forward’ in nuclear talks

Washington — Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said Sunday that he concluded a “productive” meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, calling it another “step forward” in tortuous talks to dismantle the East Asian nation’s nuclear arsenal.

Pompeo provided no details but also said the talks focused on preparations for a second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump. The first, in June in Singapore, produced a vague declaration that has formed the basis for continuing, but fitful, negotiations.

“There are many steps along the way, and we took one of those today,” Pompeo said in Seoul in brief public comments alongside South Korean President Moon Jae-in. “It was another step forward.”

Trump, meanwhile, tweeted his approval and said he would “look forward to seeing Chairman Kim again, in the near future.”

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert added that Pompeo and Kim “refined options for the location and date of that next summit.”

Kim invited inspectors to visit the Punggye-ri nuclear test site to confirm that it has been irreversibly dismantled, Nauert added in a statement.

But the statement made no mention of Yongbyon, North Korea’s vast main nuclear facility. The South Korean government was encouraging the North to offer to dismantle part of Yongbyon, in exchange for the United States issuing a formal declaration of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, as “confidence-building” measures.

The U.S., however, has been reluctant to issue such a declaration, concerned that could undermine its military presence in the region.