Secretary of State Mike Pompeo eased off US demands that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons immediately in exchange for sanctions relief, saying instead that the Trump administration wants Kim Jong Un’s regime to take “credible steps’’ toward that goal.
Pompeo’s testimony Wednesday to the House Foreign Affairs Committee marked a significant walking back from rhetoric that North Korea has scorned, raising doubts about the meeting between Kim and President Trump have planned for Singapore on June 12. Trump told reporters Wednesday that “we will know next week about Singapore.’’
North Korea has insisted it won’t give up its nuclear weapons program without major concessions from the United States. Presenting the latest formulation of US policy, Pompeo told the House panel, “Our posture will not change until we see credible steps taken toward the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. It’s time to solve this once and for all.’’
The US wants a “rapid’’ process in which North Korea’s abandonment of its nuclear program is “total and complete, that won’t be extended over time,’’ Pompeo said of the agenda for the planned summit. “If we can get the two to agree that that’s the end state we’re working for, we will have a good day.’’
Pompeo didn’t define what “credible steps’’ by North Korea might look like, giving the administration leeway to make that decision later — and possibly to declare victory from a summit without an unambiguous timetable from North Korea.
Trump agreed in March to meet with Kim in response to an invitation relayed by South Korea, without first consulting his advisers or running through possible outcomes.
A failed summit would damage Trump’s self-promoted image as a master deal-maker. He’s said he will succeed where his predecessors failed in persuading North Korea to give up its ambitions to become a nuclear superpower.
Pompeo’s reformulation of the US demands was presaged by Trump on Tuesday, when a reporter asked if Kim could be expected to give up his nuclear capabilities all at once.
“All-in-one would be nice, I can tell you,’’ Trump said. “I’m not going to go beyond that. It would certainly be better if it were all-in-one. Does it have to be? I don’t think I want to totally commit myself.’’
Meanwhile, a group of foreign journalists departed by train Wednesday to watch the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear test site after eight reporters from South Korea received last-minute permission to join them.
The remote site deep in the mountains of the North’s sparsely populated northeast interior is expected to have a formal closing ceremony in the next day or two, depending on the weather. The closing was announced by Kim Jong Un ahead of his planned summit with Trump next month.
The train trip was expected to take 8-12 hours, followed by several hours on a bus and then an hour hike to the site itself.
The journalists were put in sleeping cars on the train, four bunks to a compartment. The compartments had windows covered with blinds, and the journalists were told not to open the blinds during the journey.
Media were also expected to pay their own costs for the trip. The train fare was $75 per person round trip. Each meal was $20.
North Korea had earlier refused to grant entry visas to the South Korean journalists after the North cut off high-level contact with Seoul to protest joint US-South Korean military exercises. But North Korea accepted the list of the South Korean journalists to attend via a cross-border communication channel.
