US believes North Korea is serious about denuclearization talks
The new US Secretary of State believes that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will be serious in upcoming negotiations with Washington on denuclearization.
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| New US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Photo:AP. |
"I got the impression he was serious,"YonhapToday, citing the statement of new US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a press conference in Brussels, Belgium.
Mr Pompeo met Mr Kim Jong-un during a secret visit to Pyongyang in late March, when he was still director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to prepare for a summit between the North Korean leader and US President Donald Trump in May or early June.
The statement of the new US Secretary of State was made just hours afterThe leaders of the two Koreas, at a summit, agreed to "complete denuclearization" of the peninsula and aim to formally end the war this year.
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| Historic inter-Korean meeting. Photo: AP |
Mr. Pompeo praised the event as a "historic meeting," and said that North Korea's acceptance of dialogue was partly thanks to President Trump's efforts.
The new US Secretary of State reaffirmed his stance that he is determined to completely eliminate North Korea's nuclear program and will not repeat the failures of previous negotiations with Pyongyang.
"We will make every effort to achieve the permanent, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea's weapons of mass destruction program," he stressed.