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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (left) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shake hands following a joint press conference in Sochi, Russia, on May 14. (AFP/Yonhap News)
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Pompeo meets with Russian foreign minister in Sochi
The US and Russia have once again confirmed their differences about the approach toward North Korea’s denuclearization. The US has emphasized that it will maintain sanctions and pressure on North Korea until the North’s complete denuclearization, while Russia has once again called for a security guarantee for the North Korean regime following its summit with the North last month. This disagreement was apparent during a press conference held by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov following a meeting that lasted for about three hours in Sochi, Russia, on May 14. Lavrov stepped up to the microphone first. While mentioning a telephone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that took place on May 3, Lavrov said, “We are promoting dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang. We are prepared to support such a dialogue.” “We highlighted that the leadership of DPRK [North Korea] expects certain guarantees of security of their country reciprocated by denuclearization, and that denuclearization should be expanded over the whole of the Korean Peninsula,” Lavrov went on to say. Since the North Korea-US summit in Hanoi, North Korea has apparently focused on gaining a security guarantee in exchange for denuclearization, instead of sanctions relief, which the US regards as the North’s weak point. Following the North Korea-Russia summit, this approach was underlined once again, this time by Russia. “I underscored that we must maintain full implementation of the UN sanctions until the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea is achieved,” Pompeo said, adding that “our two teams have been working very closely together on this in a very productive fashion.” The US reconfirmed its basic stance, which contradicts Russia’s, of using “maximum pressure,” including sanctions, to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table and achieve denuclearization. After his meeting with Putin, Pompeo told reporters that he and Putin had “spent a fair amount of time thinking about North Korea, how we might unlock the denuclearization.” By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
