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TOKYO (AP) \u2014 America\u2019s top diplomat left Tokyo for Pyongyang on Sunday after pledging that the U.S. will coordinate with allies Japan and South Korea on efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
On the eve of his fourth visit to North Korea, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Saturday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to try to unify the countries\u2019 positions as he looks to arrange a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and chart a path toward denuclearization.<\/p>\n
Japan has been wary of Trump\u2019s initiative, fearing it could affect its long-standing security relationship with the U.S.<\/p>\n
Pompeo said it was important to hear from the Japanese leader \u201cso we have a fully coordinated and unified view.\u201d Pompeo also pledged that during his meeting with Kim on Sunday, he would raise the cases of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.<\/p>\n
Pompeo later planned stops in South Korea and China to review the negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important for us to hear from you as I travel to Pyongyang to make sure that we are fully in sync with respect to missile programs, (chemical and biological weapons) programs,\u201d Pompeo told Abe. \u201cWe will bring up the issue of the abductees as well and then we will share with you how we hope to proceed when we are in Pyongyang tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump is pressing to meet with Kim for a second time after their June summit in Singapore produced a vague agreement on denuclearization with few, if any, specifics. Despite the historic meeting, the two sides are deadlocked over how to achieve that goal. Trump canceled Pompeo\u2019s initial planned return to North Korea last month.<\/p>\n
In contrast with South Korea, where President Moon Jae-in has been at the forefront of encouraging Trump\u2019s rapprochement with the North, Japan has been decidedly cautious, insisting its interests and concerns be addressed.<\/p>\n
Abe did not speak of differences but highlighted the importance of demonstrating to the world that the U.S.-Japan alliance is \u201cmore robust than ever\u201d and stressing the importance of \u201cthorough coordination\u201d with Washington on all aspects of North Korea policy.<\/p>\n
Pompeo has repeatedly refused to discuss details of negotiations, including a U.S. position on North Korea\u2019s demand for a declared end to the Korean War and a proposal from Seoul for such a declaration to be accompanied by a shutdown of the North\u2019s main known nuclear facility.<\/p>\n
The U.S. and Japan have pushed for the North to compile and turn over a detailed list of its nuclear sites to be dismantled as a next step in the process; the North has rejected that.<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s foreign minister, Taro Kano, said the accounting continues to be a priority for his country.<\/p>\n
\u201cDisclosing all nuclear inventories is the first step toward denuclearization,\u201d he told reporters after Pompeo wrapped up his meeting in Tokyo.<\/p>\n
Kono also said he and Pompeo didn\u2019t go into details of a possible war-end declaration because it\u2019s premature while there is virtually no progress in denuclearization. \u201cWe are not even talking about whether to do it or not,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not an issue that we are even considering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many believe such a declaration could reinforce North Korea\u2019s demands for the U.S. to withdraw its forces from South Korea and Japan.<\/p>\n
While traveling to Asia, Pompeo said his mission was to \u201cmake sure that we understand what each side is truly trying to achieve \u2026 and how we can deliver against the commitments that were made\u201d in Singapore. He said they would develop options, if not finalize, the location and timing of a second Trump-Kim summit.<\/p>\n
He has also distanced himself from an earlier stated goal of achieving North Korea\u2019s nuclear weapons abandonment by the end of Trump\u2019s term in January 2021.<\/p>\n
Since the effort got underway with a secret visit to the North by then-CIA chief Pompeo in April, there has been only limited progress.<\/p>\n
North Korea so far has suspended nuclear and missile tests, freed three American prisoners and dismantled parts of a missile engine facility and tunnel entrances at a nuclear test site. It has not taken any steps to halt nuclear weapons or missile development.<\/p>\n
The North also has accused Washington of making \u201cunilateral and gangster-like\u201d demands on denuclearization and insisted that sanctions should be lifted before any progress in nuclear talks. U.S. officials have thus far said sanctions will remain in place until the North\u2019s denuclearization is fully verified.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
America’s top diplomat left Tokyo for Pyongyang on Sunday after pledging that the U.S. will coordinate with allies Japan and South Korea on efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapo TOKYO (AP) \u2014 America\u2019s top diplomat left Tokyo for Pyongyang on Sunday after pledging that the U.S. will coordinate with allies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[473,324,34,354,267],"class_list":["post-17846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-worlds","tag-mike-pompeo","tag-north-korea","tag-politics","tag-south-korea","tag-war-conflict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}