Trump says he “looks forward” to meeting Kim Jong-un

Photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the latter’s visit to Pyongyang on Oct. 7, posted on US President Donald Trump’s Twitter account.

US president says Pompeo is making progress during Pyongyang visit on Twitter

On Oct. 7, US President Donald Trump referred to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s fourth visit to Pyongyang by saying that he “look[s] forward to seeing Chairman Kim again, in the near future.”

“[Secretary Pompeo] had a good meeting with Chairman Kim today in Pyongyang. Progress made on Singapore Summit Agreements!” Trump wrote on Twitter that morning.

Trump also posted three photos from Kim and Pompeo’s meeting on Twitter. One of the photos shows Kim and Pompeo shaking hands as they face the camera; another shows them smiling at each other; and a third shows the two in a meeting with several other figures before their luncheon. This third photo shows Kim alongside Kim Yo-jong, first vice director of the Korean Workers' Party Central Committee, and an interpreter. Pompeo is flanked by CIA Korea Mission Center Chief Andrew Kim and US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in was informed that during Kim and Pompeo’s meeting during Pompeo’s visit to Pyongyang on Oct. 7, the two agreed to hold a second North Korea-US summit as soon as possible. North Korea and the US agreed to continue deliberations aimed at determining the specific timing and location of the second summit and to quickly set up working-level teams of negotiators to deliberate North Korea’s denuclearization process and the schedule of the North Korea-US summit.

Photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the latter’s visit to Pyongyang on Oct. 7. The photos were published in the Oct. 8 edition of the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North Korean state.

In connection with this, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said on Oct. 7 that “Chairman Kim invited inspectors to visit the Punggye Ri [Village] nuclear test site [in Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province] to confirm that it has been irrevocably dismantled.”

On May 24, leading up to the first North Korea-US summit on June 12, North Korea detonated its nuclear test site at Punggye Village before the eyes of foreign correspondents from the US and other countries, but the US has cited the need for expert verification. During a meeting at the Blue House, Pompeo told Moon that there had been a discussion about the North’s denuclearization measures, observation by the US government, and the US’s corresponding measures.

In a press release, Nauert said that “Pompeo held productive discussions with Chairman Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang Sunday. They discussed the four elements contained in the US-DPRK Singapore Summit Joint Statement signed by President Trump and Chairman Kim.”

This joint statement 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.

This means that the discussion during Pompeo’s visit to North Korea focused on the specific denuclearization measures that the US is requesting for North Korea’s “complete denuclearization” and corresponding measures such as a declaration formally ending the Korean War that North Korea has been asking the US to make as part of resetting the two countries’ relations.

“Secretary Pompeo and Chairman Kim also agreed to instruct their respective working-level teams to meet soon to intensify discussions on the key remaining issues to deliver on the Singapore Summit Joint Statement,” Nauert said. “They also discussed the upcoming second summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim and refined options for the location and date of that next summit.”

“President Trump looks forward to continuing to build upon the trust established with Chairman Kim in Singapore and anticipates meeting again soon,” Nauert said.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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