Pompeo wraps up talks in North Korea without seeing Kim Jong Un

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico/AP



By ASSOCIATED PRESS 07/07/2018 07:22 AM EDT

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrapped up two days of talks with senior North Korean officials on Saturday without meeting Kim Jong Un but with commitments for new discussions on denuclearization and the repatriation of the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War.

Before departing Pyongyang, Pompeo told reporters that his conversations with senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol had been “productive,” conducted “in good faith” and that “a great deal of progress” had been made in some areas. But he stressed that “there’s still more work to be done” in other areas, much of which would be done by working groups that the two sides have set up to deal with specific issues.

Pompeo said that a Pentagon team would be meeting with North Korean officials on or about July 12 at the border between North and South Korea to discuss the repatriation of remains and that working level talks would be held soon on the destruction of North Korea’s missile engine testing facility.

In the days following his historic June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore, President Donald Trump had announced that the return of the remains and the destruction of the missile facility had been completed or were in progress.



Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/07/pompeo-north-korea-talks-701665

[Zoonart]

1. In other words...NO SALE.

[lark]

2. Yes, another fat nothing burger of a bend over meeting.

Note that there's no reference to NK actually increasing their stocks of nuclear fuel, ramping way up once drumpf left. There's also no reference to any target dates for the so-called denuclearization effort to start or to be done. The missile facility exploded on it's own, they're just completing the process. They haven't released the location of their other facilities, even though we know they have them. They've done NOTHING of significance and won't and drumpf is so stupid, he doesn't even get it at all.

[left-of-center2012]

3. What a joke

"with commitments for new discussions"

conversations ... had been “productive,”

conducted “in good faith”

“a great deal of progress”
....................................................................
Trump 'got played' by Kim in Singapore,
and now Kim won't even meet with Pompeo.

[tanyev]

4. Oh, no! He didn't show up in person to receive his Elton John CD?

[Freethinker65]

5. Wait. You mean Trump lied about the remains already being back home?

Any POW group that supports this administration should demand an apology from the liar in chief.

[keithbvadu2]

6. Why should Kim meet low level flunky Pompeo? Donald gave Kim legitimacy of being a world leader.

Why should Kim meet low level flunky Pompeo? Donald gave Kim legitimacy of being a world leader.

[Gothmog]

7. This is a big deal

Link to tweet

[soryang]

8. It's still the same dispute about how the negotiations will go forward.

Will it be a unilateral capitulation by the North to the "one bundle" CVID approach, now slightly modified with a new label FFVD, or will it be the phased approach with step by step reciprocal moves by both the US and North Korea? The US rejects the reciprocal step by step approach, and apparently did not agree to the North Korean request to end the Korean War on the anniversary of the armistice. The way the North Korean proposal was described after the Pompeo meeting, the ICBM test site, and perhaps the production facility recently in the news could have been put on the table.

The unilateral suspension of joint military exercises probably misled the North into thinking that a step by step trust building approach was going to be forthcoming. The US really had nothing much to offer, as it felt after the exercise suspension, the onus was on Pyongyang for the next step. That didn't happen. This is probably why there was no meeting with Kim. They just don't want to listen to the old formula,it smacks of capitulation to an ultimatum, in spite of the fact that denuclearization is supported by multiple UN resolutions. The use of the expressions "one sided gangsterlike denuclearization," "shopworn ideas" and "gangster mentality," to describe the US position, in the foreign office statement were probably Choi Son Hui's work. She precipitated the earlier cancellation of the Trump summit with her acidic remarks. Ironically, the North criticized the US- South Korean suspension of joint military exercises, criticizing it as "reversible." This was a missed opportunity to say the least.

One possibility is to continue with a step by step approach, learning more about N.Korean nuclear and missile facilities, restricting or eliminating them step by step, and reciprocating in other ways, such as by offering technical assistance to make the ELWR safer, and eliminating the chance of nuclear accidents. This has been suggested by 38North experts. Much of what is known about the North Korean nuclear program is from this earlier program that was abandoned.

Each side could ignore that they are out of step with each other's negotiating strategy and just accomplish what is possible as they progress to a more comprehensive resolution. I was surprised not to hear of opening liason offices bilaterally, or perhaps just by the US in Pyongyang in lieu of a declaration of the end of the Korean conflict.