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TOKYO – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to North Korea on Friday in an effort to breathe new life into the United States. nuclear and missile arsenal.
The top US diplomat is under pressure to show progress following the meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore where the two sides agreed to work towards the "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
In North Korea, North Korean officials have struggled to maintain basic communication, North Korea has not returned the remains of US soldiers who went missing during the Korean War as promised, and new satellite imagery has shown North Korea expanding a key missile-manufacturing plant.
Still, Pompeo sounded a note of optimism before arriving in Pyongyang, saying it was "seeking to fill in some details on those commitments" made in Singapore and "continues the momentum towards implementation of "
" I expect that the DPRK is ready to do the same, "he said, using an acronym for the North K orean regime, while at a refueling stop in Japan.
Managing expectations for its North Korea diplomacy has been a challenge for the Trump administration as the White House all the historic progress of the State Department.
National security adviser John Bolton, a longtime North Korea hawk, said Sunday that Pompeo would deliver a plan to Kim Jong Un for the complete dismantlement of Pyongyang's nuclear program in one year. But on Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert clarified the United States was not imposing a timeline.
Meanwhile, President Trump has said North Korea no longer poses a nuclear threat, and on Thursday, claimed credit for the Korean Peninsula. under the Obama administration, North Korea was doing tremendous testing, tremendous missile launches and you can ask President Obama, he was very close to going to war, "Trump told reporters on Air Force One. "I do not think enough credit is given to the fact that under the Obama administration it was a mess. There was no talk, it was only nuclear testing and rocket launches. "
Since Kim took power in 2011, he has launched more than 85 missiles and conducted four nuclear weapons tests. Under Trump's tenure, there have been nine missiles launches, at least two involving intercontinental ballistic missiles, a major breakthrough, and its largest nuclear weapons test.
A break in North Korean launches and testing was also achieved during the Obama administration for more Pyongyang promised the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, an outcome it never delivered on
The mixed messaging inside the Trump administration has been taken as an indication that the United States may be backing its original demand that North Korea
"Nothing could be further from the truth," Nauert said in a statement. "Our policy towards North Korea has not changed, we are committed to a denuclearized North Korea."
But the State Department has made a subtle tweak to its demand of North Korea, which originally called for the "complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization, "or CVID. In the past week, the State Department has not used the CVID language, and instead called on North Korea to carry out "final, fully verified denuclearization."
Concerns about North Korea's sincerity have risen to even basic goodwill gestures that Pyongyang agreed to the United States of America in the history of the United States of America.
Last month, Trump told a crowd of fans that 200 human remains had
United Nations Command has opened the Demilitarized Zone in the United States of America. service members, but there has been no communication at all with the North Koreans, said a US defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation. 9659019] The remains could be returned to the DMZ or to two military installations in South Korea, Osan Air Base and Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, the official said.
"There were no concrete talks to fix the details … Wheels are
The Pentagon is "the official comment."
The Pentagon is "waiting for the action of a loose actionable thing," the official added. . Experts have warned that verifying and removing Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, a challenge that has bedeviled successive U.S. administrations, could easily take 10 years even assuming full North Korean compliance, which is also not a given. Last week, U.S. intelligence officials told The Post that North Korea does not intend to fully surrender its nuclear stockpile, and instead is considering ways to conceal the number of warheads it has and secret production facilities. Diplomats familiar with the talks, who spoke on the subject of the discussion, said progress with the North Koreans has been slow, and the two sides
The State Department says Pompeo will try to get a better understanding during his trip. The schedule provided for the U.S. diplomat's arrival on Friday included a luncheon with Kim Yong Chol, a former vice chairman of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party Central Committee. In recent weeks, US officials have expressed displeasure in the North Korean official statement for the first time in the United States of America.
South Korean media have It was reported that Kim Yong Chol could be replaced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ri Yong-ho – so he was able to get a close look at what he was doing.
Pompoe's team includes a mix of State Department, White House, Pentagon and intelligence officials, including the CIA's Andy Kim, a longtime Korea specialist, Randall Schriver, a senior Pentagon official for Asia, and Sung Kim, a US diplomat who has been splitting his time
Dan Lamothe, Karen DeYoung, and Anne Gearan in Washington, contributor to this report.
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