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View Full Version : U.S. aims for 'major' North Korea disarmament in two-and-a-half years: Pompeo




Zippyjuan
06-13-2018, 11:24 AM
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-pompeo/u-s-aims-for-major-north-korea-disarmament-in-two-and-a-half-years-pompeo-idUSKBN1J9271

The "agreement" with Trump and Kim had no time tables (or details about anything for that matter) but Trump promised North Korea would be disarming "soon". Now his Secretary of State says he hopes it will happen "sometime during Trump's first term". They don't even know if or when the two sides may meet again. On that too he said "hopefully soon".


SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States hopes to achieve “major disarmament” by North Korea within the next 2-1/2 years, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday, seeking to give assurances after a summit this week that Pyongyang will eventually give up its nuclear weapons.

President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on Tuesday, issuing a joint statement afterward that reaffirmed the North’s commitment to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” and gave U.S. guarantees of security to North Korea.

But the brief document from the two leaders’ historic meeting provided no details on when Pyongyang would give up a nuclear weapons program that has advanced enough to threaten the United States, or how the dismantling might be verified.

Pompeo was in Seoul on Wednesday to brief South Korean officials on the summit. Speaking to a small group of reporters and asked if he would like to accomplish major nuclear disarmament within Trump’s current term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2021, Pompeo replied:

“Oh yes, most definitively. Absolutely ... you used the term major, major disarmament, something like that? We’re hopeful that we can achieve that in the 2-1/2 years.”

“I am ... confident they understand that there will be in-depth verification,” Pompeo said. He added that the initial agreement between Trump and Kim had not captured all of what had been agreed by the two sides.

“Not all of that work appeared in the final document. But lots of other places where there were understandings reached, we couldn’t reduce them to writing, so that means there’s still some work to do, but there was a great deal of work done that is beyond what was seen in the final document that will be the place that we will begin when we return to our conversations,” Pompeo said.

Critics in the United States said the joint statement by the two leaders was short on detail and that Trump had made too many concessions to Kim, whose country is under U.N. sanctions for its nuclear and weapons programs and is widely condemned for human rights abuses.

Trump, who returned to Washington early on Wednesday, hailed the meeting with Kim, the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader, as a success that had removed the North Korean nuclear threat.

“Everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office,” Trump said on Twitter.

“There is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!”

Pompeo is charged by Trump with leading the follow-on negotiations with North Korea.

“I don’t know exactly what the timing will be for our next conversation with the North Koreans,” Pompeo said. “I would anticipate it will be fairly quickly after we return to our home countries.”

“I don’t know exactly what form that will take, but I’m very confident that by some time in the next week or so we will begin the engagement.”

North Korea’s state media also hailed the summit as a success, including highlighting Trump’s surprise announcement after the summit that the United States would stop military exercises with South Korea.

He also added that the halt on military exercises would end if talks end.

Jamesiv1
06-13-2018, 11:44 AM
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-pompeo/u-s-aims-for-major-north-korea-disarmament-in-two-and-a-half-years-pompeo-idUSKBN1J9271

The "agreement" with Trump and Kim had no time tables (or details about anything for that matter) but Trump promised North Korea would be disarming "soon". Now his Secretary of State says he hopes it will happen "sometime during Trump's first term". They don't even know if or when the two sides may meet again. On that too he said "hopefully soon".
I predict.......... ready for it?

October 2020.

That would be a nice topper coming into election day. Keep it low key until then, have a handshake deal with Kim Jung to keep it on the down-low, and then boom! The Deal of the Century!!

That would be some tiger blood winning right there.

Zippyjuan
06-13-2018, 12:14 PM
That is a huge change from just a few months ago.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/03/09/north-must-start-disarming-trump-will-meet-kim-white-house.html


North Must Start Disarming Before Trump Will Meet Kim: White House


North Korean leader Kim Jong Un must first take "concrete steps" toward disarming before President Donald Trump will meet with him, the White House said Friday.

"The president will not have the meeting without seeing concrete steps and concrete action" taken on the vague promises North Korea has made to South Korean envoys on "denuclearization" and halting its nuclear and missile tests, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said at a press briefing.

Sanders did not define the concrete steps or suggest how they might be verified, but said the North had to "follow through on the promises they've made" before Trump will participate in a summit that South Korean officials said would probably take place at the end of May.

In a Tweet Thursday night, Trump hailed the prospect of meeting face-to-face with Kim to forge a path to peace on the peninsula. But Sanders said a time and location for the meeting hadn't been set.

"That's yet to be determined," she said.


More at link.