Trump's CIA chief in secret meeting with
North Korean leader: U.S. officials
Send a link to a friend
[April 18, 2018]
By John Walcott and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON/PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) -
U.S. Secretary of State nominee and CIA Director Mike Pompeo made a
secret visit to North Korea over the Easter weekend and met with North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un to discuss a planned summit with U.S.
President Donald Trump, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
Pompeo's trip made him the most senior U.S. official ever known to have
met with Kim and provided the strongest sign yet to Trump's willingness
to become the first serving U.S. president ever to meet a North Korean
leader.
Pompeo's conversations fueled Trump’s belief that productive
negotiations were possible with North Korea over its nuclear and
ballistic missile programs, but far from guaranteed, according to a U.S.
senior official briefed on the trip.
The visit, a second U.S. official said, was arranged by South Korean
intelligence chief Suh Hoon with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Yong
Chol, and was intended to assess whether Kim was prepared to hold
serious talks.
Pompeo, one of Trump's most trusted advisers, returned to report that it
was worth continuing to pursue the possibility of a summit, but added
that no site had been selected from lists of options, and consequently
no logistical arrangements had been made so far, the second official
said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump said earlier on Tuesday the United States was engaged in direct
talks at "extremely high levels" with North Korea to try to set up a
summit between him and Kim.
He sowed some confusion by suggesting he had been speaking to Kim
directly, but later clarified by saying: "Let's leave it a little bit
short of the highest level."
Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders added: "The president said the administration
has had talks at the highest levels and added that they were not with
him directly.”
Asked about Pompeo, she said: “The administration does not comment on
the CIA director’s travel.”
Pompeo told his Senate confirmation hearing for the post of secretary of
state this week he was optimistic a course could be set at a Trump-Kim
summit for a diplomatic outcome with North Korea, but added that no one
was under any illusion that a comprehensive deal could be reached at
that meeting.
Pompeo said the aim of the summit would be “an agreement ... such that
the North Korean leadership will step away from its efforts to hold
America at risk with nuclear weapons” and that Pyongyang should not
expect rewards until it takes irreversible steps.
Pompeo's trip made him the most senior U.S. official to visit North
Korea since then-intelligence chief James Clapper in 2014.
The news came after Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe opened
two days of talks at the president's Mar-a-Lago retreat in Palm Beach,
Florida.
Trump said he believed there was a lot of goodwill in the diplomatic
push with North Korea, but added it was possible the summit - first
proposed in March and which the president said could take place in late
May or early June - may not happen.
Efforts to arrange the unprecedented meeting have helped ease tensions
over Pyongyang's development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the
United States. Kim has agreed to discuss denuclearization, according to
U.S. and South Korean officials.
"I really believe there’s a lot of goodwill; a lot of good things are
happening," Trump told reporters.
"As I always say, we’ll see what happens, because ultimately it’s the
end result that matters, not the fact that we’re thinking about having a
meeting or having a meeting."
MEETING SITE?
Trump, who has exchanged bellicose threats with Kim in the past year,
said U.S. officials were looking at five locations for a meeting. Asked
if any of those were in the United States, Trump replied: "No."
A U.S. official said sites in Southeast Asia and Europe were among those
under discussion. Kim has rarely left North Korea.
[to top of second column]
|
A combination photo shows CIA Director 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)
Speculation has centered on a range of sites including Pyongyang, the
demilitarized zone between the Koreas, Stockholm, Geneva and Mongolia.
Talks between Trump and Abe are largely focused on the prospective
summit as Japan seeks a U.S. commitment that any denuclearization deal
with Kim will include not just long-range missiles but those that could
be aimed at Japan.
Reflecting the closeness of their ties, the Trump-Abe meetings included
a walk around the carefully manicured grounds of the beachfront club and
dinner on the patio with their wives. A round of golf was planned for
Wednesday.
"For the North Korean issue, I’d like to underscore the importance of
achieving the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization,
as well as the abandonment of missile programs of North Korea," Abe told
Trump.
Abe also obtained an agreement from Trump to bring up the issue of
Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea, a highly emotive issue for
the Japanese.
'IT'S POSSIBLE THINGS WON'T GO WELL'
Trump stressed that he and Abe were united.
"Japan and ourselves are locked, and we are very unified on the subject
of North Korea," he said.
Trump said it was possible diplomatic efforts to arrange a Kim summit
would fall short and if it did not happen, the United States and its
allies would maintain pressure on Pyongyang through sanctions.
"It’s possible things won’t go well and we won’t have the meetings and
we’ll just continue to go on this very strong path we have taken," he
said.
Trump also backed efforts between South Korea and the North aimed at
ending a state of war that has existed between the two countries since
1953.
"People don’t realize the Korean War has not ended. It’s going on right
now. And they are discussing an end to the war. Subject to a deal, they
have my blessing and they do have my blessing to discuss that," he said.
TRADE AGENDA
Trump and Abe could use a successful summit to give themselves a
political boost at home. Trump has been hounded by controversies linked
to an investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S.
election, and Abe is struggling with declining popularity because of
scandals over suspected cronyism.
Trump has forged close ties with Abe during his 15 months in power and
the two have bonded over rounds of golf during Abe's last visit to
Florida more than a year ago and Trump's visit to Tokyo last November.
Japan fears Trump will try to link vital security matters with touchy
trade topics. Tokyo is eager to avoid being pushed into talks on a
two-way free trade agreement aimed not only at market access but at
currency policies, something South Korea recently accepted when it
renegotiated a trade deal with the United States.
Another irritant on trade is that Japan has not been given an exemption
to tariffs on steel and aluminum exports to the United States, unlike
the European Union, Canada and Mexico.
(Reporting by Steve Holland in West Palm Beach, Florida and John Walcott
in Washington; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington
and Linda Sieg, Kaori Kaneko and Stanley White in Tokyo; Editing by
James Dalgleish, Peter Cooney and Lisa Shumaker)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |