U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a second day of talks in North Korea on Saturday in an attempt to agree details on dismantling the North\u2019s nuclear program after both sides said they had things to \u201cclarify\u201d from the previous day.<\/p>\n
Pompeo spent his first night in the North Korean capital in three visits so far this year before leaving the government guest house where he stayed to make a secure phone call to update U.S. President Donald Trump on the talks.<\/p>\n
He then sat down again with Kim Yong Chol, the top North Korean party official and former spy agency chief with whom he played a key role in arranging the summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.<\/p>\n
Kim Yong Chol said at the start of the meeting the two had had \u201cvery serious discussion on very important matters yesterday\u201d. He joked that, as a result, Pompeo \u201cmight have not slept well last night\u201d at the prestigious Paekhwawon, or 100 Flowers Garden, guest house.According to a pool report from U.S. reporters traveling with him, Pompeo replied: \u201cDirector Kim, I slept just fine. We did have a good set of conversations yesterday. I appreciate that and I look forward to our continued conversations today as well.\u201d
\nPompeo reiterated that Trump was \u201ccommitted to a brighter future for North Korea\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the work that we do, the path toward complete denuclearization, building a relationship between our two countries, is vital for a brighter North Korea and the success that our two presidents demand of us,\u201d Pompeo said.<\/p>\n
Kim agreed that the work was important. \u201cThere are things that I have to clarify,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pompeo responded: \u201cThere are things that I have to clarify as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo and his staff later held a working lunch with their North Korean counterparts.<\/p>\n
She said progress had been made but gave no details. Nauert also said Pompeo had been \u201cvery firm\u201d on three basic goals: the complete denuclearization of North Korea, security assurances, and the repatriation of U.S. remains from the 1950-53 Korean War.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s spoken about every element of the agreement from Singapore,\u201d she told reporters, according to a pool report from Pyongyang.<\/p>\n
She said there had been no softening in the U.S. positions, although she would not explain why the department no longer defines its aim as \u201ccomplete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization\u201d (CVID).<\/p>\n
\u201cOur policy hasn\u2019t changed,\u201d she said several times when asked about CVID. \u201cOur expectation is exactly what the president and Kim Jong Un jointly agreed to in Singapore, and that is the denuclearization of North Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pompeo left Pyongyang for Tokyo at 4:26 p.m. local time (0726 GMT). It was not immediately clear if he had met Kim Jong Un, as he did on his previous trips.<\/p>\n
\u2018SECURITY GUARANTEES\u2019
\nKim Jong Un made a broad commitment to \u201cwork toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula\u201d in Singapore but offered no details of how or when North Korea might dismantle a weapons program that Trump has vowed will not be allowed to threaten the United States.<\/p>\n
Trump, meanwhile, committed to providing \u201csecurity guarantees\u201d to North Korea and Washington later called off one of its major joint military exercises with South Korea, which Pyongyang regularly denounces as rehearsals for invasion.<\/p>\n
Nauert said U.S. and North Korean officials had set up working groups to deal with \u201cnitty gritty stuff\u201d, including verification of efforts to achieve denuclearization, which would be headed on the U.S. side by Sung Kim, a Korean-American who is also ambassador to the Philippines.<\/p>\n
She said U.S. national security adviser John Bolton and White House chief of staff John Kelly were also on Pompeo\u2019s earlier briefing call with Trump.<\/p>\n
\u2018CRACKING JOKES\u2019
\nPompeo held nearly three hours of talks with Kim Yong Chol on Friday and a working dinner that Nauert described as further \u201crelationship building\u201d. She said the dinner lasted an hour and 45 minutes and at times the two were \u201ccracking jokes\u201d and \u201cexchanging pleasantries\u201d.<\/p>\n
North Korea\u2019s official KCNA news agency said Pompeo\u2019s delegation was taking part in high-level talks for implementing the Singapore summit statement but gave no more details.<\/p>\n
Pompeo said before arriving in North Korea he was seeking to \u201cfill in\u201d some details on North Korea\u2019s commitments and maintain the momentum towards implementing the agreement from the summit.
\nU.S. intelligence officials told Reuters that Pompeo would try to agree on at least an initial list of nuclear sites and an inventory that could be checked against available intelligence.<\/p>\n
The issue of the remains of U.S. soldiers missing from the Korean War is also high on the agenda. Trump said after the Singapore summit Kim had agreed to send the remains back to the United States.<\/p>\n
Both issues are considered essential tests of whether Kim is serious about talks. North Korean officials have yet to demonstrate that in working-level talks, the intelligence officials said.<\/p>\n
Some officials in the State and Defense Departments and inU.S. intelligence agencies are worried that Trump has put himself at a disadvantage by overstating the results of the Singapore summit.<\/p>\n
Pompeo had said before the Singapore summit Trump would reject anything short of \u201ccomplete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation\u201d.<\/p>\n
The State Department says pressure will remain until North Korea denuclearizes but, in statements this week, it redefined the U.S. goal as \u201cthe final, fully verified denuclearization\u201d of the country.<\/p>\n
Some U.S. officials and experts have said the change in language amounted to a softening in approach. The State Department said its policy remains unchanged.<\/p>\n
Pompeo\u2019s talks will be closely watched in the region. He is due to meet officials from allies South Korea and Japan in Tokyo on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a second day of talks in North Korea on Saturday in an attempt to agree details on dismantling the North\u2019s nuclear program after both sides said they had things to \u201cclarify\u201d from the previous day. Pompeo spent his first night in the North Korean capital in three visits […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":97560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7863],"tags":[39779,39777,21197,39778],"class_list":["post-97556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-section","tag-kim-yong-chol","tag-mike-pompeo","tag-north-korea","tag-u-s"],"yoast_head":"\n