After talks with a delegation led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that it says were “regrettable†North Korea accused the United States of undermining the accomplishments from last month’s summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un.
“BREAKING: North Korea says talks with Sec. Pompeo were “regrettable,” and accuses the US of trying to unilaterally pressure the country into abandoning its nukes. This is why you don’t do what Trump did. Because now we look like weak idiots. #DworkinReportâ€
BREAKING: North Korea says talks with Sec. Pompeo were "regrettable," and accuses the US of trying to unilaterally pressure the country into abandoning its nukes. This is why you don’t do what Trump did. Because now we look like weak idiots. #DworkinReport pic.twitter.com/ESwPeNx9sk
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) July 7, 2018
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The North Korean Foreign Ministry in a statement accused the U.S. of unilaterally pressuring the communist country into abandoning its nuclear weapons. The statement was released just after Pompeo and his diplomatic delegation departed North Korea to return to the United States.
“We had expected that the U.S. side would offer constructive measures that would help build trust based on the spirit of the leaders’ summit … we were also thinking about providing reciprocal measures,” Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“However, the attitude and stance the United States showed in the first high-level meeting (between the countries) was no doubt regrettable,” the spokesman said.
As Pompeo left the talks with his counterpart, senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, he said they had been “productive.â€
“We had many hours of productive conversations,†Pompeo said. “These are complicated issues, but we made progress on almost all of the central issues. Some places a great deal of progress. Other places, there’s still more work to be done.â€
Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters that Pompeo had left a personal letter from President Trump to Kim Jong Un while he was there, but did not personally meet with the North Korean leader.
Trump held a summit meeting with Kim on June 12 in Singapore, and since then has said that the talks were a “great success” and that he was bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula. Pompeo’s trip to North Korea was supposed to reassure skeptics and to obtain more details about Kim’s alleged promise of “denuclearization” of his country.
The trip, however, seems to have been a failure. Not only did Pompeo fail to agree on details, but it seems as if North Korea is stepping back from their denuclearization promises.
In North Korea’s statement they said that the unilateral demands by the U.S. for “CVID†— complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization — were “very concerning.†It also said that the U.S. position, as expressed by Trump and Pompeo, has led to a “dangerous phase that might rattle our willingness for denuclearization that had been firm.”
Pompeo’s trip followed by North Korea’s belligerent statement proves that the entire Singapore Summit was a sham and nothing but a publicity stunt by Donald Trump who is desperately trying to improve his political standing in the United States where he has all time low approval ratings.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
