Experts say North Korea has not addressed such core issues as declaration, verification and timeline of denuclearization
Heading to Asia, U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that he hoped to develop options for the timing and location of the next summit between U. S. President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un.
The top U. S. diplomat will meet with Kim during his North Korean visit, which will be his fourth.
« There are complex scheduling, logistics issues, » Pompeo said en route to Japan, his first stop. He added he was hopeful that a general date and location for the summit might be reached in his meeting with Kim.
When asked whether he was taking any message or gift to Kim on Trump’s behalf, Pompeo told the traveling press: « I am not bringing anything that we are prepared at this point to talk about publicly. »
Earlier in the week, Pompeo said he hoped his North Korean visit would produce « better understandings, deeper progress, and a plan forward not only for the summit between the two leaders but for us to continue the efforts to build out a pathway for denuclearization. »
But analysts said Pompeo faces challenges to ensure a second summit produces real progress toward denuclearization.
« I think they cannot come out of these trips anymore with broad statements of principles. There needs to be some actual, tangible movement on the nuclear issue, » said Victor Cha, senior adviser and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a research group in Washington.
Core issues
North Korea has not addressed core issues, including providing a list of nuclear weapons and facilities, giving a way to verify that information, and presenting a timeline for disposing of these things, added Cha during a phone briefing on Friday.
North Korea has been seeking a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War, but the United States has said Pyongyang must give up its nuclear weapons first. North Korea has not satisfied Washington’s demands for a complete inventory of its nuclear weapons.
At a briefing on Wednesday, Pompeo would not give details of the ongoing negotiations, including the possibility of an end-of-war declaration.
While there is value to engagement at the highest levels, the downside is that this publicly raises the stakes for each meeting, according to former U.
