Kim agrees to open Punggye-ri nuclear test site, Sohae missile engine site to international inspectors, Pompeo says; experts say this may be move to get more from US
U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is calling his recent trip to Pyongyang a success, but experts experienced in negotiating with Pyongyang remain unclear what he achieved in his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Pompeo made his fourth trip to Pyongyang on Sunday and met with Kim to discuss steps North Korea is willing to take toward denuclearization and to prepare for the second summit between President Donald Trump and Kim.
Arriving in Seoul on Monday after his meeting in Pyongyang, Pompeo said “significant progress” was made in his talks with Kim and that they were “pretty close” to agreeing on the details of the second summit.
Pompeo also said Kim agreed to open North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site and Sohae missile engine site to international inspectors.
Significant progress doubted
Evans Revere, a former State Department official who negotiated with North Korea and is now a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a U. S. research group, said, “I’ve looked hard for any signs that significant progress was made on denuclearization, but have found none.”
Ken Gause, director of the International Affairs Group at the Center for Naval Analyses, a research and development center serving the Navy and other U. S. defense agencies, also doubted that any meaningful steps were taken during Pompeo’s latest meeting with Kim.
“I was kind of surprised that he said that there has been significant progress because nobody seems to have any information that suggests something significant took place,” said Gause.
Revere said North Korea managed to use its test sites as a “trading bait” to gain concessions from the U. S.
“On the nuclear weapons front, it seems clear that the North Koreans are eager to get as much mileage out of their promise to shut down and dismantle the two facilities at Punggye-ri and Sohae as possible,” said Revere.
