About the Author
Leo Byrne
Leo Byrne is the Data and Analytic Director at NK News and is based in Seoul, South Korea.Follow him on twitter @LeoPByrne
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said he hoped working-level talks with North Korea would resume soon, though appeared to partially walk back earlier comments regarding the timeline.
Pyongyang and Washington agreed to restart negotiations following an impromptu meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the end of June.
But while immediately after the meeting, Pompeo said he hoped talks would resume in mid-July, on Friday he gave a different estimate.
“I hope (talks can resume). Chairman Kim made a commitment that they would. He said that in several weeks he would put his working-level team back together; we’re ready to go,” Pompeo said during an interview with the Catholic Television Network.
But the U.S. Secretary of State did not give another exact date for when talks might resume and reiterated that Washington would need to verify any North Korean denuclearization.
“If we get this right, we can reduce risk to the world, we can create an opportunity for real peace, we can denuclearize North Korea in a way that we can verify and the world can get comfortable that that’s really taken place, and then there’s real opportunity for the North Korean people to live a better, brighter future,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo also weighed on North Korea’s recent criticism of joint U.S. – South Korean military drills, with Pyongyang still publicly displeased even the exercises have been scaled back.
North Korea issued two statements on Tuesday, threatening that the scaled-back “19-2 Dong Maeng” exercises set to begin in August could affect the resumption of talks.
“When working-level talks between the DPRK and the U.S. are on the calendar… the U.S is attempting to stage joint military drills ‘DongMaeng 19-2’ with South Korea, violating the commitment made at the top level,” an unnamed DPRK foreign ministry spokesperson said in an article from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“If they become a reality, it will affect the DPRK-U.S. working-level negotiations.”
North Korea also claimed it could resume weapons testing, saying the military exercises violated “the DPRK-U.S. joint statement.”
But Pompeo on Friday downplayed the criticism saying that drills were in line with what Trump and Kim had already agreed upon.
“I saw those comments. I think we’re doing exactly what President Trump promised Chairman Kim we would do with respect to those exercises,” Pompeo said.
“I think we’re going to – we’ll get that right. I’m confident that these conversations are going to continue.”
Pompeo’s comments were not the first time this week, the U.S. Secretary of State seemed positive about negotiations with Pyongyang saying on Monday that he hoped the next round of talks would be more “creative”.
“I hope the North Koreans will come to the table with ideas that they didn’t have the first time,” he said. “We hope we can be a little more creative too.”
Leo Byrne is the Data and Analytic Director at NK News and is based in Seoul, South Korea.Follow him on twitter @LeoPByrne
Join the influential community of members who rely on NK News original news and in-depth reporting
Learn MoreEnter your details below
Don't have an account? SIGN UP
Join the influential community of members who rely on NK News original news and in-depth reporting
Learn MoreAlready have an account? SIGN IN
Join the influential community of members who rely on NK News original news and in-depth reporting
Learn MorePlease enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.
Don't have an account? SIGN UP
Specialist news and analysis,
research tools, and unique data sets
Internet Explorer is not compatible with this website. We instead recommend using Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
Microsoft ceased supporting IE 10 and older in 2016.
In addition, Microsoft cyber-security chief Chris Jackson has been urging users to stop using the browser since February 2019.
Specialist news and analysis,
research tools, and unique data sets
The NK Pro, NK News and KCNA Watch websites do not support private mode or incognito browsing.