Politics
08:40, 24-Aug-2018
Pompeo to visit DPRK for the 4th time with new envoy
Updated
07:58, 27-Aug-2018
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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) again next week to try to persuade it to abandon its nuclear weapons, and will take a new US special representative, Stephen Biegun, with him in an attempt to break the deadlock.
Pompeo on Thursday named the Ford Motor Co executive, a veteran Republican foreign policy hand, as the US special envoy to DPRK.
“Steve will direct US policy toward North Korea (DPRK) and lead our efforts to achieve President Trump’s goal of the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea (DPRK) as agreed to by Kim Jong Un,” Pompeo told reporters.
“He and I will be traveling to North Korea (DPRK) next week to make further diplomatic progress toward our objective,” Pompeo said.
It will be Pompeo’s fourth trip this year aimed at getting the DPRK to scrap a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States and his second since an unprecedented June summit between US President Donald Trump and DPRK leader Kim Jong Un that produced much fanfare but little obvious progress.
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US President Donald Trump and DPRK leader Kim Jong Un sign a joint document after their summit at the Capella Hotel in Singapore, June 12, 2018. /Reuters Photo
US President Donald Trump and DPRK leader Kim Jong Un sign a joint document after their summit at the Capella Hotel in Singapore, June 12, 2018. /Reuters Photo
US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo had no plans to meet with Kim in Pyongyang.
“We don’t have that scheduled; we have no expectations of meeting with Chairman Kim. That is not a part of this trip,” she told a regular news briefing.
Biegun said of the DPRK: “The issues are tough and will be tough to resolve.” But he added that Trump had created an opening “that we must take by seizing every possible opportunity to realize the vision for a peaceful future for the people of North Korea (DPRK).”
Biegun served as vice president of international governmental affairs for Ford (F.N) for 14 years. Prior to that, he was a senior staffer for former President George W. Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and he also advised members of Congress on foreign affairs.
Trump hailed the summit in Singapore as a success and even went as far as to declare that the nuclear threat from the DPRK was over, but Pyongyang has given no indication that it is willing to abandon its arsenal unilaterally.
The next few months, Pompeo did follow-up negotiations, but these appear to have made little progress, with the two sides apparently far apart on the fundamental issue of denuclearization and the US demand for this before the DPRK sees any relief from tough international sanctions.
Source(s): Reuters