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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo holds a press conference on the outcome of a meeting with North Korea’s Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea Kim Yong Chol, in New York on May 31.


U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, concerning the latest meeting with North Korea’s Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea Kim Yong Chol, that, “I’m confident we're moving in the right direction.” 

Secretary Pompeo held a two-day meeting with Vice Chairman Kim in New York on May 30 and 31 to decide agenda items for a possible U.S.-North Korea Summit. In a press conference after the meetings, the secretary said that, “I will tell you we’ve made real progress in the last 72 hours toward setting the conditions.” 

“It will take bold leadership from Chairman Kim Jong-un if we are able to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the course for the world. President Trump and I believe Chairman Kim is the kind of leader who can make those kinds of decisions,” he said. 

"I believe they [North Korea] are contemplating a path forward where they can make a strategic shift, one that their country has not been prepared to make before. They’ll have to choose a path that is fundamentally different than the one that their country has proceeded on for decades.” 


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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (third from right) and North Korea’s Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea Kim Yong Chol (third from left) hold a meeting in New York on May 31.


Regarding the objective of the U.S. for the summit, the secretary said, “President Donald Trump and the U.S. objective is very consistent and well known: the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” 

He then stressed, “President Trump has also made it clear that if Kim denuclearizes, there is a brighter path for North Korea. We think that working together, the people of the U.S. and North Korea can create a future defined by friendship and collaboration.” 

As for the process of achieving the goal of denuclearization, Pompeo said, “It looks like there are challenges and difficulties, things that can’t be bridged. However, our mission is to bridge them so that we can achieve this historic outcome.” 

Meanwhile, the vice chairman will travel to Washington, D.C., on June 1 to deliver a personal letter from Chairman Kim to President Trump. 


Korea.net