<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday trumpeted progress in U.S.-North Korean relations on a slew of issues, from efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon nuclear weapons to closing in on details for a second Trump-Kim Jong-un summit.<\/p>\n
Mr. Pompeo arrived in Seoul hours after wrapping up his fourth visit to North Korea on Sunday, telling reporters it was a \u201cgood trip\u201d and that he and Mr. Kim made strides on the initiatives discussed at June\u2019s historic summit in Singapore between the North Korean leader and President Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a good, productive conversation,\u201d Mr. Pompeo said during a joint briefing with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. \u201cAs President Trump said, there are many steps along the way, and we took one of them today. It was another step forward. So this is, I think, a good outcome for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Associated Press reports, Mr. Kim echoed Mr. Pompeo\u2019s optimism. \u201cIt\u2019s a very nice day that promises a good future for both countries,\u201d Mr. Kim said as he, Mr. Pompeo and their respective entourages met for a 90-minute working lunch at the Paekhwawon State Guest House in the North Korean capital.<\/p>\n
Prior to the lunch, Mr. Kim and Mr. Pompeo held closed-door talks for roughly 3 hours. Stephen Biegun, U.S. special envoy for North Korea, and Andrew Kim, head of the Korea working group at the CIA, attended as part of the U.S. delegation. Mr. Kim was accompanied by his sister, Kim Yo-jong, and Kim Yong-chol, the North\u2019s former top intelligence official and the main conduit for talks between the regime and Mr. Pompeo.<\/p>\n
Despite the goodwill expressed by both sides, neither Mr. Pompeo nor Mr. Kim opted to disclose details. During the joint press conference in Seoul, Mr. Moon attempted to press Mr. Pompeo to shed a little light on Sunday\u2019s talks.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince we have the media present here, I would like to ask you to disclose anything that you can open to the public here,\u201d Mr. Moon said. Mr. Pompeo politely declined, telling the South Korean leader, \u201cI don\u2019t have much to add but we had a good, productive conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
White House critics argue that Mr. Kim and the regime in the North have leveraged Mr. Trump\u2019s efforts to engage with Pyongyang to earn legitimacy in the international community while harboring no real intention to follow through on major U.S. initiatives, such as denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.<\/p>\n
However, administration officials argue that Mr. Trump has broken through decades of diplomatic impasses that have stymied previous efforts to establish ties with Pyongyang. But officials have acknowledged the road to reconciliation for North Korea, the U.S. and the international community remains long.<\/p>\n
Bilateral talks between North Korea and Washington faltered recently, and Mr. Trump canceled an earlier round of meetings. Sunday\u2019s talks marked the first breakthrough in that impasse since Singapore.<\/p>\n
Mr. Pompeo\u2019s visit to North Korea was \u201cbetter than the last time [but] it\u2019s going to be a long haul\u201d to get Mr. Kim to acquiesce to Washington\u2019s demands, a U.S. official tied to Mr. Pompeo\u2019s delegation told Fox News on Sunday.<\/p>\n
While details were scarce on Sunday\u2019s meeting, U.S. officials said the visit focused on the nuts and bolts of the denuclearization process, proffered by the Trump administration in June, as well as the diplomatic parameters for a proposed second summit between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim.<\/p>\n
In Washington, Mr. Trump indicated his willingness to hold a second face-to-face summit with the North Korean leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to seeing Chairman Kim again, in the near future,\u201d Mr. Trump tweeted Sunday, citing the progress he and Mr. Kim made in Singapore, just as Mr. Pompeo was wrapping up his visit in Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
Analysts in the U.S. were upbeat but cautious.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there is no way Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in roughly 210 minutes with Chairman Kim Jong-un achieved any major breakthroughs Sunday, [he] may have achieved his goal nonetheless: exploring the timing and possible locations for a second U.S.-North Korea summit,\u201d said Harry Kazianis, head of defense studies at the Washington-based Center for the National Interest.<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump\u2019s willingness to secure a second summit with North Korea could lead to an offer to officially end the Korean War, Mr. Kazianis said, in exchange \u201cfor a big action towards denuclearization.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump will likely be tempted to hold such a summit quickly, and possibly even in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, to make history and drive headlines, pointing to another success right before the midterm elections,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The administration has resisted efforts to officially end the war between North and South Korea \u2014 the two countries are technically under a 1953 cease-fire agreement \u2014 out of concern that a peace deal would increase pressure on the U.S. to remove troops from South Korea.<\/p>\n
But Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim have pushed for the end-of-war declaration by December. Mr. Moon has argued that he and Mr. Kim have agreed that such a \u201cpolitical declaration\u201d wouldn\u2019t require the pullout of 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday trumpeted progress in U.S.-North Korean relations on a slew of issues, from efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon nuclear weapons to closing in on details f Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday trumpeted progress in U.S.-North Korean relations on a slew of issues, from efforts to persuade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[322,367,324,34,354],"class_list":["post-17876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-worlds","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-moon-jae","tag-north-korea","tag-politics","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17876","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=17876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}