Secretary of State Mike Pompeo departed for Pyongyang early Thursday, marking the start of his third trip to North Korea this year.
Pompeo is expected to again meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during negotiations Friday. Discussions between Pompeo and Kim, should they occur, will be the highest-level talks since the North Korean leader met President Donald Trump in Singapore in June. The secretary made two trips to the North prior to the summit, once in April and again in May.
Talks in Pyongyang will follow talks between a U.S. delegation led by Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, a senior nuclear negotiator, and a North Korean team directed by Choe Son Hui, the vice minister of foreign affairs, in the Joint Security Area at the inter-Korean border. (RELATED: US, North Korean Officials Meet At DMZ Amid Reports Kim Jong Un Is Advancing His Weapons Programs)
Ongoing discussions are focused on hammering out the details of the agreement signed in Singapore, a shell of a deal with very little substance. The U.S. is reportedly seeking clarity on North Korea’s intentions and nuclear ambitions.
North Korea has made certain key concessions to the U.S., such as halting weapons testing and releasing American prisoners. The U.S. is still waiting on the return of the remains of fallen American military personnel, and, of course, there is the biggest issue — denuclearization.
U.S. government and open-source intelligence suggests that North Korea is not only not disarming, as the administration claimed, but is actively boosting its weapons development programs. (RELATED: Perhaps Dashing Dreams Of Denuclearization, Kim Jong Un Moves To Advance His Weapons Development Programs)
“We aren’t going to confirm or deny any intelligence reports,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday in response to questions about the newest developments. “What I can tell you is that we’re continuing to make progress.” It was during that press conference that she confirmed Pompeo’s return trip to Pyongyang, according to CNN.
Trump tweeted Tuesday that talks were “going well.”
Many good conversations with North Korea-it is going well! In the meantime, no Rocket Launches or Nuclear Testing in 8 months. All of Asia is thrilled. Only the Opposition Party, which includes the Fake News, is complaining. If not for me, we would now be at War with North Korea!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2018
Prior to Pompeo’s departure, the Department of State reaffirmed that the aim is the “final, fully-verified denuclearization of (North Korea),” a variation of earlier calls for “complete verifiable irreversible denuclearization” (CVID) and “permanent verifiable irreversible denuclearization” (PVID). The language has reportedly been changing as U.S. negotiators attempt to find a term suitable for the North Koreans, who as recently as Sunday pushed back on attempts by the U.S. to define the terms of the Singapore agreement, Reuters reported Wednesday.
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