Pompeo holds more North Korea talks, both sides seeking to 'clarify'

SEOUL / TOKYO (Reuters) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a second day of talks in North Korea on Saturday. from the previous day.

Pompeo spent his first night in the North Korean capital in three visits to the US Senate Donald Trump on the talks.

He then sat down again with Kim Yong Chol, the top North Korean party official, and played a key role in arranging the summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.

Kim Yong Chol said at the start of the meeting that he had "very serious discussion on very important matters yesterday". He joked that, as a result, Pompeo "might have not slept well last night" at the prestigious Paekhwawon, or 100 Flowers Garden, guest house.

According to a report from U.S. reporters, Pompeo replied: "Director Kim, I slept just fine. We did a good set of conversations yesterday. I appreciate it and I look forward to continuing it today. "

Pompeo reiterated that Trump was" committed to a future brighter for North Korea ".

"So the work that we do, the path to complete denuclearization, is vital for a brighter North Korea and the success of our presidents of us," Pompeo said.

Kim agreed that the work was important. "There are things that I have to clarify," he said.

Pompeo responded: "There are things that I have to clarify."

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo and his staff later held a working lunch with their North Korean counterparts.

She said progress had been made but gave no details. Nauert also said that North Korea, security badurances, and the repatriation of U.S. remains from the 1950-53 Korean War.

"He told us about every element of the agreement from Singapore," she told reporters, according to a report from Pyongyang.

She said that she would not have been able to position herself in the U.S. positions, but she would not explain why she was not going to be a full, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization (CVID).

"Our policy has not changed," she said. "Our expectation is exactly what the president and Kim Jong agreed upon in Singapore, and that is the denuclearization of North Korea."

Pompeo left Pyongyang for Tokyo at 4:26 p.m. local time (0726 GMT). It was not immediately clear if he had met Kim Jong Un, as he did on his previous trips.

'SECURITY GUARANTEES'

Kim Jong Un made a broad commitment to "work toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in Singapore Korea might dismantle a weapons program that Trump has vowed not to be allowed to threaten the United States.

Trump, meanwhile, committing to providing "security guarantees" to North Korea and Washington later on one of its major joint military exercises with South Korea, which Pyongyang regularly denounces as rehearsals for invasion.

Nauert said US and North Korean officials had set up working groups to deal with "nitty gritty stuff", including verification of efforts to achieve denuclearization, which would be headed on the US side by Kim Sung, to Korean-American who is also ambbadador to the Philippines.

She said U.S. national security adviser John Bolton and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly were also on Pompeo's earlier briefing with Trump.

'CRACKING JOKES'

Pompeo held about three hours of talks with Kim Yong Chol on Friday and a working dinner that Nauert described as further "relationship building". She said the dinner lasted an hour and 45 minutes and at times the two were "cracking jokes" and "exchanging pleasantries".

North Korea's official KCNA news agency said Pompeo's delegation was taking part in high-level talks for Singapore.

Pompeo said before arriving in North Korea he was seeking to "fill in" some details on North Korea's commitments and maintain the momentum towards implementing the agreement from the summit.

U.S. intelligence officials told Reuters that Pompeo would be able to check out at least an initial list of nuclear sites and an inventory that could be checked against available intelligence.

The issue of the remains of U.S. soldiers missing from the Korean War is also high on the agenda. Trump said after the Singapore summit Kim had agreed to go back to the United States.

Kim is serious about talks. North Korean officials have yet to demonstrate that in working-level talks, the intelligence officials said.

Some officials in the State and Defense Departments and inU.S. intelligence agencies are worried that Trump has put himself at a disadvantage by overstating the results of the Singapore summit.

Pompeo had said before the Singapore summit Trump would reject anything short of "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization".

The State Department says it will remain until North Korea denuclearizes goal, in statements this week, it redefined the U.S. goal as "the final, fully verified denuclearization" of the country.

Some U.S. officials and experts have said that they change the language in their language. The State Department said its policy remains unchanged.

Pompeo's talks will be closely watched in the region. He is here to meet all of South Korea and Japan in Tokyo on Sunday.