Pompeo backs away from North Korea denuclearisation timeline
Source: The Guardian
The US secretary of state had previously said he hoped the country would give up weapons by January 2021
Benjamin Haas in Seoul
@haasbenjamin
Wed 3 Oct 2018 23.46 EDT Last modified on Wed 3 Oct 2018 23.48 EDT
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has backed away from a previously stated goal of North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons by the end of Donald Trump’s first term in January 2021.
Pompeo is set to visit Pyongyang on Sunday for nuclear negotiations, his first trip since an earlier one was cancelled by Trump over a lack of progress. While the president has boasted of his success in reducing tensions with North Korea, he said last week he did not want to “play the time game” with nuclear talks, and instructed Pompeo to avoid setting a timeline.
Pompeo said earlier references to a date for the North to complete denuclearisation was a reference to talks between Kim Jong-un and South Korean president Moon Jae-in.
“My comment about 2021 was not mine. I repeated it but it was a comment that had been made by the leaders who had their inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang,” Pompeo told reporters. “They talked about 2021 when they were gathered there. So I was reiterating this as a timeline that they were potentially prepared to agree to.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/04/pompeo-backs-away-from-north-korea-denuclearisation-timeline
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