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(Bloomberg) – President Donald Trump said he hopes to see North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "in the near future" after his senior diplomat announced progress on Sunday at a meeting with Kim in Pyongyang to resolve details of a possible second summit.
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told South Korean President Moon Jae-in when he arrived in Seoul that Kim had agreed to meet Trump "as soon as possible," according to a statement from Moon's office.
South Koreans said that the United States and North Korea had considered creating formal negotiating groups to set up a "denuclearization process" and set a date and venue for the follow-up meeting. first Trump-Kim summit in June.
"As President Trump has said, many steps are underway and we have crossed one today," said Pompeo at Moon in Seoul, in a speech that proposed only one proposal. general evaluation of his interviews with Kim. "It was another step forward."
Pompeo "had a good meeting with President Kim today in Pyongyang," Trump said Sunday on Twitter. "Progress made in the Singapore summit agreements! I look forward to seeing President Kim again in the near future. "
Pompeo and Kim "have clarified the venue and date options" for their next summit and have agreed to have their respective work teams meet soon to intensify discussions on the main outstanding issues, the spokeswoman said. of the state department Heather Nauert in a statement. Kim also invited inspectors to visit the Punggye Ri nuclear test site to confirm that it had been irreversibly dismantled, Nauert said.
A US official told reporters traveling with Pompeo that the visit to North Korea was "better than" that of Pompeo during his previous trip to the North Korean capital in July, adding that there were a "long way" in front of him.
This trip was the last turning point in a diplomatic saga in which Trump and Kim threatened each other with nuclear war last year for their only historic summit in Singapore. While the leaders signed a vague agreement aimed at "working towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the two sides quarreled over the pace and sequence of steps taken to achieve this goal.
Pompeo's brief visit was not supposed to solve critical problems to force North Korea to disarm or make great progress on a peace treaty officially ending the Korean War. Kim's regime stated that he wanted to focus on more than his nuclear program and that he expected the United States to show some flexibility in dealing with its requirements.
& # 39; Good future & # 39;
Pompeo and Kim met for about two hours, then had a 90-minute working lunch, starting with this exchange in front of reporters:
"It's a beautiful day that promises a good future," said Kim, "for both countries."
Pompeo replied, "We had a great time this morning. Thank you for your welcome, President Trump sends greetings. And we had a very successful morning.
Pompeo landed Sunday morning in Pyongyang to meet Kim, after visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday in Tokyo. Pompeo will continue to visit Beijing and Washington on Monday.
As a sign of the modest goals of the trip, Pompeo told a journalist en route to Japan that one of his goals would be to "make sure we understand what each party is really trying to achieve," a Commentary that signaled to both countries was still far from the detailed negotiations on the disarmament checked.
Second summit
In Tokyo, Pompeo told Abe that the United States wanted to work closely on nuclear negotiations and would raise with the North Koreans the issue of Japanese abductions held by the regime for decades.
Sunday's stop in Pyongyang was the first opportunity for Pompeo to present his special correspondent for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, to his leaders. Pompeo had hoped to do so in August, when he had named Biegun and announced their intention to travel to the country. But Trump canceled the trip a day later, saying North Korea had not made enough progress in denuclearization.
It was Pompeo's fourth trip to Pyongyang and his first visit since July, when he spent the night and left with little to show for his trip. Shortly after the Secretary of State left the country during her last visit, North Korea issued a statement in which she praised her claims of "gangsters".
Trump "generous"
Kim Song Hye, who accompanied top North Korean leader Kim Yong Chol during a visit to the White House in June, described Trump as "generous" and "a leader" in staff talks in Pyongyang. . She also said she believed the two countries "would not be here without Trump".
Despite public criticism by analysts that the United States has achieved little in disarmament, Trump and his team point to the lack of nuclear testing and missile testing since the end of last year, a sign that strategy works. And at a press conference last month, Trump asserted that there was more progress behind the scenes than the public would recognize it. Pompeo said the US is "making the progress we need."
In recent weeks, US officials have discussed a recent meeting between Kim and Moon in Pyongyang, when North Korea pledged to dismantle a missile engine test site and discussed the possibility of doing the same. in its Yongbyon nuclear enrichment facility.
"We are continuing to make progress on the agreements reached at the Singapore summit," tweeted Pompeo shortly after arriving in Seoul.
