US says it is committed to working with DPRK to achieve peace

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The United States is committed to working with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told DPRK's officials in Pyongyang on Wednesday.

"I have high expectations the United States will play a very big role in establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula," said Kim Yong Chol, director of the United Front Department responsible for North-South relations. The remarks were provided in a pool report.

In response, Pompeo said the group with him was "equally committed to working with you to achieve exactly" that.

"For decades, we have been adversaries. Now we are hopeful that we can work together to resolve this conflict, take away threats to the world and make your country have all the opportunities your people so richly deserve," Pompeo added.

Breaking the news of Pompeo’s second visit to the DPRK in less than six weeks, Trump said the two countries had agreed on a date and location for the unprecedented summit, though he stopped short of providing details.

While Trump said it would be a “great thing” if the detainees were freed, Pompeo, speaking to reporters en route to Pyongyang, said he had not received such a commitment but hoped the DPRK would “do the right thing.” His visit, he said, was intended to finalize a summit agenda that could enable a “historic, big change” in relations between long-time foes.

US President Donald Trump congratulates Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a ceremonial swearing in at the State Department, May 2, 2018, in Washington, DC. /VCG Photo

The detainees’ release could signal an effort by Kim to set a more positive tone for the summit, which is being planned for late May or early June, following his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut Pyongyang’s nuclear bomb test site.

While Kim would be giving up the last of his American prisoners, a release could also be aimed at pressuring Trump to make concessions of his own in his bid to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear arsenal, something it has not signaled a willingness to do.

“Plans are being made, relationships are building,” Trump said of the planned summit during remarks otherwise focused on his decision to pull the US out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

“Hopefully, a deal will happen. And with the help of China, South Korea and Japan, a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone,” Trump added.

Pompeo made a secret visit to the DPRK over the Easter weekend, becoming the first US official known to have met Kim, to lay the groundwork for the planned summit. The meeting occurred before Pompeo’s Senate confirmation as secretary of state.

In this file photo released by the US government on April 26, 2018, the DPRK's leader Kim Jong Un (R) shakes hands with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang over the 2018 Easter weekend. /VCG Photo

Trump suggested that dropping out of the Iran nuclear accord, which he has frequently denounced as a bad deal, would send a “critical message” not just to Tehran but also to Pyongyang.

“The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them,” Trump said.

But critics of Trump’s decision to leave the Iran deal say it could undermine his credibility in the DPRK’s eyes, fueling doubts whether he would abide by any nuclear agreement.

Fate of three detainees

Pompeo’s latest trip raised the prospects that the three Korean-American detainees, Kim Hak-song, Kim Sang-duk and Kim Dong-chul could be turned over to him.

Asked whether that could happen, Trump told reporters: “We’ll soon be finding out. It would be a great thing if they are.”

Pompeo, whom aides say has played a key role in negotiations with the DPRK on the issue, said, “We have been asking for the release of these detainees for ... 17 months,” according to a transcript provided by the State Department of his remarks to reporters aboard his plane.

“We’ll talk about it again today,” he said. “I think it’d be a great gesture if they would choose to do so.”

File photo of Kim Dong-chul /Reuters Photo‍

Pompeo said he was hoping to nail down a framework for the summit, the first-ever meeting of sitting US and DPRK leaders. Trump has said the meeting could take place at either the heavily fortified demilitarized zone between the DPRK and the Republic of Korea (ROK) or in Singapore.

Pompeo, when he was still the CIA director, met Kim on this last trip but said he did not know whom he would meet this time. If he does see Kim again, he would be only the second secretary of state to sit down with a DPRK leader. The last was Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who went on an unsuccessful trip in 2000 to arrange a meeting between President Bill Clinton and Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il.

Pompeo said he hoped to set out conditions to allow Trump to achieve the goal of “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization” of the DPRK, but insisted that sanctions would not be lifted before that.

“We are not going to head back down the path that we headed down before,” he said. “We’re not going to relieve sanctions until such time as we achieve our objectives.”

A senior State Department official said Washington would be looking for “bold steps” by the DPRK rather than incremental agreements on nuclear disarmament that Pyongyang has violated in the past.

Pompeo’s latest visit followed talks between Kim and ROK President Moon Jae-in on April 27 at the demilitarized zone, the first summit for the two Koreas in over a decade.

The inter-Korean summit produced a declaration of goodwill but was short on specific commitments and failed to clear up the question of whether Pyongyang is really willing to give up nuclear missiles.

US officials have been pressing Kim to free the three remaining American detainees as a show of sincerity before the summit. Trump and Kim have exchanged insults and threats over the past year but tensions have eased in recent months.

Until now, the only American released by the DPRK during Trump’s presidency was Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old university student who returned to the US in a coma last summer after 17 months of captivity and died days later.

Warmbier’s death escalated US-DPRK tensions, already running high at the time over Pyongyang’s stepped-up missile tests.

The three still being held are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST.

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Source(s): Reuters