Secret talks warm up US-N Korea relations
CIa dIreCtor PomPeo returns after a faCe-to-faCe meetIng wIth north korean leader kIm
washington — US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Mike Pompeo, the current CIA director and his nominee to be the top US diplomat, formed a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un when they met in secret.
Pompeo became the most senior US official known to have met Kim when he visited Pyongyang to discuss a planned summit with US President Donald Trump. “Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!” Trump said on Twitter.
Pompeo’s visit and the Tweet provide the strongest sign yet about Trump’s willingness to become the first serving US president ever to meet a North Korean leader, amid a protracted standoff over the North’s nuclear and missile programmes it pursues in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions. —
US President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that his CIA chief has held secret talks with North Korea’s leader in Pyongyang, as the South said it was exploring paths to a peace deal with the nuclear-armed North.
Seoul’s push for discussions on formally declaring an end to interKorean hostilities was the latest in a series of diplomatic initiatives involving the divided Korean peninsula that would have been unthinkable just months ago.
The flurry of activity has raised hopes for a major breakthrough from a pair of upcoming and potentially historic summits.
The latest shock move was CIA director Mike Pompeo’s face-toface meeting with North Korea’s young leader, reportedly during the first weekend in April.
“Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of Summit are being worked out now,” Trump tweeted. “Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!” he added, regarding efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.
Kim is expected to meet South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in at a landmark meeting next Friday where discussion of a peace declaration is now on the cards.
Trump earlier said that the summit could, with his “blessing”, explore a peace treaty to formally end the conflict.
“We are looking at the possibility of replacing the armistice regime on the Korean peninsula with a peace regime,” a senior official at South Korea’s presidential Blue House said on Wednesday.
“But this is not something we can do by ourselves. It needs close discussions with relevant parties, including North Korea.”
The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the two sides technically at war. The Demilitarised Zone between them bristles with minefields and fortifications.
But reaching any final treaty would be fraught with complications. “The peace treaty is a very difficult problem,” said Koo Kabwoo, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.
While the US-led United Nations command, China and North Korea are signatories to the decades-old armistice, South Korea is not.
Both Pyongyang and Seoul claim sovereignty over the whole Korean peninsula, but a treaty could imply mutual recognition of each other.
The North would be likely to demand the withdrawal of US troops, while the South’s national security adviser Chung Eui-yong said on Wednesday that Seoul and Washington wanted to see Pyongyang give up its nuclear ambitions.
Next week’s meeting will be just the third summit between the North and South since the armistice was signed 65 years ago.
Key moments including Kim and Moon’s first handshake will be televised live, both sides agreed at working-level talks on Wednesday, Seoul said. Trump himself plans to hold a summit meeting with Kim within the next two months.
The pair have not spoken directly, the White House said, but the US president revealed on Tuesday there had been contact at “very high levels” to prepare for the historic meeting — an apparent reference to Pompeo’s visit. He also said that “five locations” were being considered for the summit with Kim.—