Pompeo, Kim Jong Un set Sunday meeting in North Korea

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to meet Sunday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, part of his efforts to reinvigorate nuclear talks between the two countries. While there, Pompeo is also expected to help plan for a second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump. The chief U.S. diplomat will visit North Korea during a broader swing through Asia lasting Saturday through Monday, the State Department announced Tuesday. He will also visit Japan, South Korea and China. It will be Pompeo's fourth visit to largely isolated North Korea, whose nuclear weapons arsenal is considered a major threat to the United States. The two sides have been slowly trying to flesh out Kim's vague commitment to denuclearization, made when he met with Trump in June. The last time Pompeo visited Pyongyang, in July, Kim stood him up; North Korea also issued a sharply critical statement of how the visit had gone. Pompeo was planning to visit North Korea in August. But Trump decided to call off the trip, suggesting that Chinese interference was undermining the nuclear talks. More recently, there have been mixed messages from both sides about the status of the discussions that the U.S. hopes will end North Korea’s nuclear program. Analysts say, however, North Korea has not taken any meaningful steps that show it is serious about abandoning its nuclear weapons. At a rally in West Virginia this past Saturday, Trump said he and Kim “fell in love” during their June summit. The president also spoke warmly of the “beautiful letters” the North Korean leader has sent him. "I was really tough and so was he, and we went back and forth," Trump said. "And then we fell in love, OK? No, really, he wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love.” source: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/02/pompeo-kim-jong-un-north-korea-862945 #Headlines by: Nahal Toosi

Original Post: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/02/pompeo-kim-jong-un-north-korea-862945