As President Donald Trump hails “progress being made,” a source familiar with details of the high-profile visit of North Korea’s top negotiator this month says those discussions — at both the State Department level and with the White House — “got nowhere” on denuclearization. A second source agreed with that
One source familiar with those talks said that the discussions focused entirely on the planning of the next summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un, with the North Korean leader still refusing to yield anything until he gets a major commitment from the Americans, namely a peace agreement to formally end the Korean War.
The White House announced the summit, which they said would take place “near the end of February,” after Trump met with Kim Yong Chol for nearly an hour and a half in the Oval Office. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said at the time that denuclearization had come up in that meeting.
“We’ve continued to make progress. We’re continuing to have conversations. The US is going to continue to keep pressure and sanctions on North Korea until we see fully and verified denuclearization. We’ve had very good steps in good faith from the North Koreans in releasing the hostages and other moves so we’re going to continue those conversations,” she said.
A source with knowledge of discussions told CNN the US has had a difficult time advancing anything relating to denuclearization because the White House has been pushing for another summit in such a short time frame.
“There just hasn’t been enough time. This is North Korea,” the source added.
Kim Yong Chol also met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Special Representative on North Korea Steve Biegun twice while in Washington in mid-January.
