North Korea says it no longer wants to deal with Pompeo in nuclear talks
(The Hill) North Korea on Thursday demanded that the U.S. keep Secretary of State Mike Pompeo out of future nuclear negotiations, instead requesting someone "who is more careful and mature."
Senior foreign ministry official Kwon Jong Gun was quoted saying in North Korea's KCNA news agency that whenever Pompeo “pokes his nose in, talks between the two countries go wrong without any results even from the point close to success.”
“I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the talks will become entangled,” Kwon added, according to Reuters.
“Therefore, even in the case of possible resumption of the dialogue with the United States, I wish our dialogue counterpart would be not Pompeo but other person who is more careful and mature in communicating with us," Kwon added.
Reuters noted that the comments came after North Korea said Thursday that it had tested the firing of a new "tactical guided weapon."
A summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held earlier this year in Hanoi — the second summit between the leaders — ended without an agreement on denuclearization of the Korean Penisula.
Trump at the time said at the time that North Korea was only willing to begin to denuclearize if the U.S. lifted sanctions.
“Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that. They were willing to denuke a large portion of the areas we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that," Trump said.
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