Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wants “to engage immediately in negotiations” with North Korean officials, following dictator Kim Jong Un’s pledge to close a missile site Wednesday.
“On the basis of these important commitments, the United States is prepared to engage immediately in negotiations to transform U.S.-DPRK relations,” Pompeo said, using the official acronym for the North Korean regime.
That’s a welcome development for South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Moon traveled north to Pyongyang this week with the goal of rehabilitating a denuclearization negotiation that stalled out as North Korea demanded economic concessions from the United States in advance of major steps to dismantle the regime’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. Pompeo canceled a trip to North Korea in August, in a pointed demonstration of the stand-off.
[Opinion: South Korea’s new deal with North Korea won’t stop Kim from getting the nuclear weapons he wants]
“The United States congratulates President Moon Jae-in and Chairman Kim Jong Un on the successful outcome of their summit meeting in Pyongyang,” he said Wednesday.
Pompeo proposed following up with two meetings between U.S. and North Korean officials, starting with an offer to talk to Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho next week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “[W]e are both already scheduled to be in attendance,” he noted.
The State Department also has suggested that Steve Beguin, the new special envoy for North Korea, meet regime officials for talks in Vienna, Austria; that city is home to the International Atomic Energy Agency and one of the four United Nations headquarters.
“This will mark the beginning of negotiations to transform U.S.-DPRK relations through the process of rapid denuclearization of North Korea, to be completed by January 2021, as committed by Chairman Kim, and to construct a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo will be under pressure from congressional Republicans not to ease pressure prematurely on the Kim regime.
“North Korea wants concessions from the U.S. for steps far short of denuclearization,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce tweeted earlier Wednesday. “Glad the [administration] has made no commitments. Maximum pressure campaign should proceed.”
