President Trump directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday to cancel his latest trip to North Korea, citing the regime’s insufficient progress on dismantling its nuclear weapons program and escalating tensions between the U.S. and China.
“I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the president announced in a series of tweets. “Additionally, because of our much tougher Trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were.”
Pompeo was scheduled to make his fourth trip to Pyongyang next week to continue nuclear negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The State Department announced the trip on Thursday and said Pompeo would be traveling special representative Steve Biegun, who currently serves as vice president of international government affairs for Ford Motors.
“Secretary Pompeo looks forward to going to North Korea in the near future, most likely after our Trading relationship with China is resolved. In the meantime I would like to send my warmest regards and respect to Chairman Kim. I look forward to seeing him soon!” Trump added Friday.
The White House has previously declined to comment on the timing of a second summit between Kim and Trump, following their first meeting in Singapore earlier this summer.
Pompeo told reporters prior to the trip’s cancellation that he would be traveling to Pyongyang “to make further diplomatic progress toward our objective” of complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization in North Korea. However, the Trump administration has struggled in recent weeks to show any progress in its efforts to dismantle the authoritarian regime’s nuclear and ballistic missiles program.
And a U.N. nuclear watchdog report earlier this week said North Korea has continued to pursue the “further development” of nuclear weapons, despite ongoing peace talks with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in and nuclear negotiations with the United States.
Pompeo last visited North Korea in July, during which he was only allowed to meet with senior officials. State-run media posted photos of Kim touring potato farms while Pompeo was in Pyongyang after he left the country.
[Opinion: Trump should give North Korea two weeks to stop playing him]
