Pompeo's meeting with DPRK's officials postponed

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A meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) officials scheduled for Thursday in New York has been postponed, the US State Department said, but the Republic of Korea (ROK) said the delay will not derail a second DPRK-US summit.

The top US diplomat had been expected to meet with Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee, in New York on Thursday, hoping to pave the way for a second summit between US President Donald Trump and DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and make progress on denuclearization.

The meeting would be rescheduled "when our respective schedules permit," the US State Department said on Wednesday.

"Ongoing conversations continue to take place," it said in a statement without elaborating. "The US remains focused on fulfilling the commitments agreed to by Trump and Kim at the Singapore summit in June."

"We don't believe that the delay means the DPRK-US summit won't happen or momentum for the summit has been lost," said ROK's presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.

A senior ROK foreign ministry official said that although the rescheduling was regrettable, there was no need to overthink the postponement, Reuters reported.

Trump's Republican Party lost control of the US House of Representatives on Tuesday after the Democrats rode a wave of dissatisfaction with his presidency at the US midterm elections.

Some analysts suggest a domestically weakened Trump may impact his foreign policy and test his DPRK diplomatic gambit.

Source(s): Reuters