Pompeo, in North Korea, expected to return with detained Americans: South Korean official

[May 09, 2018]  By Christine Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to return from North Korea with three American detainees, as well as details of an upcoming summit between leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, a South Korean official said on Wednesday.

Pompeo arrived in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, on Wednesday from Japan and headed to its Koryo Hotel for meetings.

The top U.S. diplomat and officials accompanying him were feted at a lunch by Kim Yong Chol, a former spy chief and now the North's director of the United Front Department, which is responsible for inter-Korean relations.

Trump earlier broke the news of Pompeo's second visit to North Korea in less than six weeks and said the two countries had agreed on a date and location for the summit, although he stopped short of providing details.

An official at South Korea's presidential Blue House said Pompeo was expected to finalize the date of the summit and secure the release of the three American detainees.

While Trump said it would be a "great thing" if the American detainees were freed, Pompeo told reporters en route to Pyongyang he had not received such a commitment but hoped North Korea would "do the right thing".

"We'll talk about it again today," he said. "I think it'd be a great gesture if they would choose to do so."

At lunch on Wednesday, Pompeo said the United States was committed to working with North Korea to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula.

"I have high expectations the United States will play a very big role in establishing peace," said Kim, the former spy chief.

The remarks were provided in a pool report.

In response, Pompeo said the group with him was "equally committed to working with you to achieve exactly" that.

"For decades, we have been adversaries. Now we are hopeful that we can work together to resolve this conflict, take away threats to the world and make your country have all the opportunities your people so richly deserve," Pompeo said.

The expected U.S.-North Korea summit has sparked a flurry of diplomacy, with Japan, South Korea and China holding a high-level meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said concerned parties should seize the opportunity to promote denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan would normalize ties with North Korea if the nuclear and missile issues, along with that of abducted Japanese citizens, were solved comprehensively.

"We must take the recent momentum towards denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula and towards peace and security in Northeast Asia, and, cooperating even further with international society, make sure this is linked to concrete action by North Korea," Abe told a news conference after the meeting.

A combination photo shows Mike Pompeo (L) in Washington, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) in Pyongyang, North Korea and U.S. President Donald Trump (R), in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., respectively from Reuters files. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas (L) & KCNA handout via Reuters & Kevin Lamarque (R)

North Korea has admitted to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens decades ago to train spies. Five have returned to Japan.

TEACHERS, MISSIONARY HELD

The three U.S. detainees being held are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST.

Until now, the only American released by North Korea during Trump's presidency has been Otto Warmbier, a 22—year-old university student who returned to the United States in a coma last summer after 17 months of captivity and died days later.

Warmbier's death escalated U.S.-North Korea tension, already running high at the time over Pyongyang's stepped-up missile tests.

North Korea reminded the United States on Wednesday there was still tension between them, warning it against "making words and acts that may destroy the hard-won atmosphere of dialogue", the North's state media said.

"The U.S. is persistently clinging to the hostile policy toward the DPRK, misleading the public opinion. Such behavior may result in endangering the security of its own country," it added, referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Pompeo's visit comes a day after Kim Jong Un made his second trip to China in less than two months, meeting President Xi Jinping and discussing the international talks over North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

During the visit, announced only after it was over, Kim told Xi he hoped relevant parties would take "phased" and "synchronized" measures to realize denuclearisation and lasting peace on the peninsula, according to Chinese state media.

Separately, Trump and Xi discussed developments on the Korean peninsula and Kim's visit to China during a phone call on Tuesday morning, the White House said.

(Additional reporting reporting by Ju-min Park in SEOUL; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Paul Tait)

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