[ad_1]
U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo began his first trip to Pyongyang since President Donald Trump's summit with leader Kim Jong Un last month with the wish to spell out Kim's specific commitments regarding denuclearization.
Pompeo, who arrived Friday in the North Korean capital, has the crucial task of dispelling growing skepticism about Kim's willingness to abandon his nuclear arsenal and translate into concrete acts the upbeat rhetoric that has followed the summit.
He was met at the Pyongyang Airport by Kim Yong Chol, a senior ruling party official and former chief of intelligence services, and Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho.
Shortly after, he and Kim Yong Chol, who was a point man on the Washington negotiations for Kim Jong Un, sat for their first talks.
"The more you come, the more we can trust each other," Kim told Pompeo, according to a pool of journalists traveling with the secretary.
It was not clear if Pompeo would meet Kim Jong Un directly, as he had done previously.
On the flight to Pyongyang, Pompeo stated that both parties made commitments at the Singapore Summit on the complete denuclearization of North Korea and what a transformed bilateral relationship might look like.
"In this trip, I seek to give some details about these commitments and to continue the momentum towards the implementation of what the two leaders promised themselves and the world." I think the DPRK is ready to do the same "Pompeo said, using the acronym for the official name of North Korea.
A hoped-for breakthrough would be the return of the remains of American troops killed during the 1950-53 Korean War. Both parties suggested that Pyongyang be ready to return dozens if not hundreds of remains.
But just before the arrival of Pompeo, Northern state media issued a warning to Washington for its criticisms of human rights in the North.
The review, published on the Uriminzokkiri website, run by the North Korean government, said Washington should stop provoking the North with an "anachronistic racketeering of human rights" at a time of attempts to improve relations.
The position it will adopt on the nuclear issue seems to be anything but a settled affair.
Doubts about the North's intentions have increased in the midst of reports that it continues to expand its facilities related to its nuclear and missile programs and that the US secret service is skeptical of its intentions to do so. give up his weapons.
Speaking on board Air Force One during a trip to Montana, Trump said that he still believed that Kim would follow and said that he had forged a personal connection with the young autocrat that he had once called "Little Rocket Man".
"I think we understand each other, I really believe that he sees a different future for North Korea," Trump told reporters. "I hope it is true, if it is not true, then we go back in the other direction, but I do not think it is necessary."
Trump needs Pompeo to score points to cast doubt on whether the president, who has already ordered the suspension of large-scale US military exercises with South Korea, is harming the complete denuclearization. A Quick Success
What Washington has in mind, however, is not entirely clear.
National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has expressed radical views on North Korea, said on Sunday that Pompeo will present in Pyongyang a plan to complete the dismantling of northern nuclear and missile programs in one year.
On Tuesday, Nauert went back, refusing to give a chronology.
Pompeo came for the last time in May before the Trump-Kim summit and went secretly to Pyongyang in early April while he was director of the CIA.
Pyongyang is the first leg of his first trip around the world as an American diplomat. He will then travel to Japan, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates before traveling to Belgium where he will accompany Trump to the NATO summit in Brussels.
[ad_2]
Source link
