Mood of Pompeo’s 4th NK visit noticeably more amicable than visit in early July

Posted on : 2018-10-08 17:02 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
US secretary of state reports positively on 90-minute lunch with Kim Jong-un
South Korean President Moon Jae-in meets with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the Blue House on Oct. 7
South Korean President Moon Jae-in meets with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the Blue House on Oct. 7

“It’s good to see you again.” (US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo)

“I am really pleased for this opportunity. After having a nice meeting, we can enjoy a meal together.” (North Korean leader Kim Jong-un)

When Kim and Pompeo met on Oct. 7 for the first time in four months, since the historic North Korea-US summit on June 12, they greeted each other warmly. The amicable mood there was quite different from Pompeo’s third visit to North Korea in early July, when he had been unable to meet with Kim.

In a statement by the spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry on July 7, on the heels of Pompeo’s failed third visit, North Korea denounced the US’s demands for denuclearization as “gangster-like.”

For nearly three months, North Korea and the US remained at odds over the North’s initial steps toward denuclearization, including its disclosure of a list of its nuclear facilities, and corresponding measures by the US, including a declaration officially ending the Korean War.

In regard to the mood at Sunday’s meeting, the Washington Post reported on Oct. 7 that Pompeo and Kim ate lunch together following a meeting that lasted for two hours. The two of them moved to the Paekhwawon Guest House in Pyongyang for lunch, where they shook hands in front of the camera, with Pompeo laying his hand on Kim’s shoulder.

Even at lunch, Kim emphasized the results of the day’s meeting: “It’s a very nice day that promises a good future for both countries.” Pompeo responded by saying that it was a “great visit” and a “very successful morning.” The lunch lasted for about 90 minutes.

Pompeo’s fourth visit to North Korea, which came about after a complicated process that included a cancellation at the end of August, has been regarded as a critical event that would determine the possibility of orchestrating a swap of initial steps toward denuclearization by the North for corresponding measures by the US. The next question is whether the date and location of the second North Korea-US summit would be determined during this visit. But it’s still unclear what exactly Pompeo was carrying in his briefcase.

“We know the end state [that we’re trying to reach]. It was set out in the [June 12] Singapore summit, four elements of it,” Pompeo said in the air after departing the US on Oct. 5 for his tour of East Asia.

The joint declaration signed by North Korea and the US during that summit detailed the establishment of new relations between North Korea and the US, a permanent and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and the recovery and repatriation of POW/MIA remains from the Korean War.

But the problem, Pompeo said, is “how [. . .] each side is seeking to approach that and how we can deliver against the commitments that were made” by the two leaders. These remarks suggest that there is a disagreement between the two sides about the “methodology” of achieving the goal of denuclearization.

Enough progress in fundamental differences in two sides’ approach to denuclearization

Whereas the US had previously harbored suspicions about North Korea’s commitment to denuclearization, the nature of the conflict has shifted to the more technical question of how denuclearization will be approached. This can be seen as substantial progress for two countries that have been adversaries for more than 70 years.

The American press has also reported that a fundamental difference about the two sides’ approaches to denuclearization has been at the heart of their stalemate. The US has held that North Korea must hand over a list of its nuclear weapons and missile facilities to achieve denuclearization, while South and North Korea have countered that this is an unrealistic goal at the present moment and that the US needs to take gradual measures corresponding to North Korea’s own steps toward denuclearization.

While it would be rash to conclude that the disagreement between North Korea and the US has been completely resolved by Pompeo’s visit to the North, it does appear that enough progress was made to settle on holding a second summit, with the two sides deepening their mutual understanding. A State Department official who accompanied Pompeo’s trip to North Korea told Reuters that this trip was “better than last time” but that the denuclearization talks between the two sides were “going to be a long haul.”

There is also considerable interest in whether the time and location of the second summit were confirmed. On Oct. 5, Pompeo said he was planning to prepare for the next summit in his meeting in North Korea but that that summit’s date and location would probably not be announced because of “complex scheduling [and] logistics issues.”

US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert also told the American press that Pompeo wanted to inform Trump of the results of the meeting before sharing them with the press. Ultimately, it appears that the results of the fourth meeting will be made public after Pompeo returns home at the conclusion of his visit to China on Oct. 8.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent, and Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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

button that move to original korean article (클릭시 원문으로 이동하는 버튼)

Related stories