Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that North Korea over the last few days had stopped responding to U.S. questions about the details of a planned June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un, and indicated that lack of communication was a factor in President Trump’s decision to cancel the meeting.
“Over the past many days we have endeavored to do what Chairman Kim and I agreed, [which] was to put teams, preparation teams, together to begin to work to prepare for the summit,” Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “And we received no response to our inquiries from them.”
In a letter released Thursday, Trump said he canceled the planned summit in Singapore because of the belligerent tone Kim Jong Un’s regime took on as the meeting approached.
Pompeo said he doesn’t know why North Korea took on that tone. “I don’t think we know,” Pompeo he told senators.
But he said he would be working to get the two sides together again.
“What I am hopeful is that we can continue to have conversations and put this back on track so we can get to a place where we can achieve this outcome,” he said.
Pompeo: I’m hopeful “we can continue to have conversations and put this back on track” pic.twitter.com/mYDqF9L6Os
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 24, 2018
The committee’s top Democrat implied that Trump had overreacted to North Korean rhetoric or made a haphazard decision. “The art of diplomacy is a lot harder than the art of the deal,” said New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez. “It’s pretty amazing that the administration might be shocked that North Korea is acting as North Korea might very well normally act.”
Pompeo reiterated that the talks currently would not produce “a successful outcome.” But he told the lawmakers that Chinese officials, as recently as Thursday, pledged to continue to implement international sanctions on the regime.
“The global pressure campaign that was put in place is important and needs to continue, perhaps even this morning more than yesterday,” Pompeo said. He added later that, “in some ways it’s situation normal: the pressure campaign continues.”
