Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is optimistic about the preparations for a summit between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, he told reporters after securing the release of three Americans detained by the regime.
“We had a chance to talk substantively about what we intend to be on the agenda, and also how we’re going to begin to coordinate in the days ahead between now and the summit in a way that we — both sides are confident that we will set the conditions for a successful meeting between the two leaders,” Pompeo told the traveling press as he departed North Korea with the three Americans on board.
Pompeo has been the lead diplomat for North Korea talks since Easter weekend, when he — as CIA director and a nominee to lead the State Department — made a secret trip to the country in which he met with Kim.
The prisoner-release helped ensure the meeting takes place. “It would have been more difficult, and it certainly would have been a more difficult situation with which we were presented,” Pompeo said when asked if the meeting might have taken place if they hadn’t been released. “I’m glad that we don’t have to confront that.”
He dismissed the suggestion that Trump is prioritizing the Americans in North Korea over the Americans held by Iran, one day after the president decided to withdraw the U.S. from the international nuclear deal negotiated during former President Barack Obama’s tenure.
“[W]e’re doing our best to get them all back. There are Americans being held in several places, right,” he said. “There are Americans detained in Syria as well. I, when I was the CIA director, I could see the State Department and all of the United States government was focused on getting every one of those Americans returned wherever they were.”
U.S. officials and lawmakers have cast doubt on whether North Korea is sincere in its willingness to negotiate over the dismantling of the nuclear weapons program, but Pompeo seemed to suggest the regime is acting in good faith. “I think that Chairman Kim is trying to set good conditions for the summit,” he said.
