Pompeo says there was lack of response from North Korea in pre-summit process
- 6 years ago
Despite the sudden cancellation of the planned summit between the leaders of North Korea and the U.S.,... Washington's top diplomat Mike Pompeo has batted away criticism the Trump administration was not seriously preparing for the now-defunct Singapore meeting,... saying there was no response from Pyongyang.
Lee Seung-jae reports.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has revealed North Korea did not respond to repeated requests from U.S. officials to discuss logistics for the now-canceled summit between the two sides.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday,... Pompeo said there was a lack of response from the North,... despite his prior talks in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
" I can add to that, over the past many days, we have endeavoured to do what Chairman Kim and I had agreed - was to put teams, preparation teams, together to begin to work to prepare for the summit. And we had received no response to our inquiries from them."
Pompeo added the lack of response from the North strongly suggested the Kim regime was not getting ready for the talks.
At the same time, he shot down criticism the U.S. wasn't ready for the summit either,... Pompeo insisting they were ready to go.
"I disagree with what you said in your opening statement - I think the American team's fully prepared. I think we're rocking. I think we're ready. I think we're prepared for this meeting. I think President Trump's prepared for this meeting. We were fully, fully engaged over the past weeks to prepare for this meeting so I disagree with your assessment that the Americans are not ready."
In the past month,... the top U.S. diplomat met with the North Korean leader twice - travelling to Pyongyang as Trump's CIA director in April,... and then as Secretary of State early this month.
In all, Pompeo has met with Kim for over three hours,... during which he stressed the importance of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,... followed by the release of three American prisoners in North Korea.
Despite the setback,... Pompeo hopes the two countries can quickly return to possibility of a summit,... but he stressed the "maximum pressure campaign continues".
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.
Lee Seung-jae reports.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has revealed North Korea did not respond to repeated requests from U.S. officials to discuss logistics for the now-canceled summit between the two sides.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday,... Pompeo said there was a lack of response from the North,... despite his prior talks in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
" I can add to that, over the past many days, we have endeavoured to do what Chairman Kim and I had agreed - was to put teams, preparation teams, together to begin to work to prepare for the summit. And we had received no response to our inquiries from them."
Pompeo added the lack of response from the North strongly suggested the Kim regime was not getting ready for the talks.
At the same time, he shot down criticism the U.S. wasn't ready for the summit either,... Pompeo insisting they were ready to go.
"I disagree with what you said in your opening statement - I think the American team's fully prepared. I think we're rocking. I think we're ready. I think we're prepared for this meeting. I think President Trump's prepared for this meeting. We were fully, fully engaged over the past weeks to prepare for this meeting so I disagree with your assessment that the Americans are not ready."
In the past month,... the top U.S. diplomat met with the North Korean leader twice - travelling to Pyongyang as Trump's CIA director in April,... and then as Secretary of State early this month.
In all, Pompeo has met with Kim for over three hours,... during which he stressed the importance of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,... followed by the release of three American prisoners in North Korea.
Despite the setback,... Pompeo hopes the two countries can quickly return to possibility of a summit,... but he stressed the "maximum pressure campaign continues".
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.