Pompeo briefs S.Korea on tour to North
Washington: The US State Department has said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo briefed South Korea on his just concluded travel to North Korea.
According to a statement issued on Sunday by State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, Pompeo visited Seoul and met the country’s president and foreign minister “to give a readout of his October 7 trip to Pyongyang”.
Pompeo “briefed on his meeting with Chairman Kim, which included his introducing Chairman Kim to Special Representative for North Korea Biegun as his chief negotiator, plans for a second US-North Korea summit, and discussions on achieving the commitments of the June Singapore Summit including the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea as committed to by Chairman Kim and President Trump,” the statement read.
Pompeo and his South Korean counterpart “also re-affirmed their commitment to the US-South Korea Alliance and continued close coordination with Japan on a unified response to North Korea.”
According to an earlier statement also issued by Nauert, Pompeo, during his stay in Pyongyang, “held productive discussions” with the country’s top leader Kim Jong-un on Sunday, when they discussed the four elements of the US-North Korea Singapore Summit Joint Statement, the upcoming second summit between the two countries’ top leaders, and options for the location and date of that next summit.
Pompeo and Kim also agreed to instruct their respective working-level teams to meet soon to intensify discussions on the key remaining issues to deliver on the Singapore statement, and Kim invited inspectors to visit the Punggye Ri nuclear test site to confirm that it has been irreversibly dismantled, the US State Department said.
“President Trump looks forward to continuing to build upon the trust established with Chairman Kim in Singapore and anticipates meeting again soon,” it added.