Pompeo says US will soon begin identifying North Korea’s nuclear facilities

Posted on : 2018-06-15 16:35 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Secretary of State passes through South Korea on way to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping and senior officials
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi bid their farewells to each other after holding a joint press conference in Beijing. (AFP/Yonhap News)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi bid their farewells to each other after holding a joint press conference in Beijing. (AFP/Yonhap News)

On June 14, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo passed through South Korea on his way to Beijing, where he met with Chinese officials, including Chinese President Xi Jinping. Pompeo explained the results of the North Korea-US summit and once again asked China for its cooperation on resolving the North Korea nuclear issue.

On the evening of June 14, Pompeo held a series of meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (as the member of the Politburo in charge of foreign affairs, Yang supervises China’s foreign policy) and Xi Jinping. During a joint press conference with Wang, Pompeo thanked China for everything it had done to arrange the North Korea-US summit, while Wang said that Pompeo had notified China about matters related to the summit and described the summit as a successful and historic meeting.

Pompeo said that the US would soon begin work on identifying North Korea’s nuclear facilities. When asked about how well the US knows about North Korean nuclear facilities, he said, “We have a reasonable understanding. It is incredibly important that we get a full understanding of that as quickly as possible. And as part of the efforts that will be undertaken in the week and weeks ahead, we will work with the North Koreans to come to have a fuller understanding of that so that we can begin to execute together the commitments that President Trump and Chairman Kim made.”

These remarks can be taken to mean that North Korean cooperation on reporting nuclear facilities is included in the tacit agreement mentioned by Pompeo.

Pompeo also raised the possibility of easing UN Security Council sanctions on North Korea, assuming that it has completed denuclearization. “[The sanctions resolutions] have mechanisms for relief contained in them, and we agreed that at the appropriate time that those would be considered. But we have made very clear that the sanctions and the economic relief that North Korea will receive will only happen after [. . .] the complete denuclearization, of North Korea,” he said.

The goal of Pompeo’s trip from Singapore to South Korea and then on to China was to secure China’s cooperation. Given the recent multiplication of sources of friction between the US and China, including the “trade war” and the Taiwan question, the US is forced to pay more attention to China to prevent the North Korean denuclearization agenda from being derailed.

By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

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