Secretary of State Mike Pompeo contradicts Rudy Giuliani, who claimed the three prisoners would be released last Thursday.
Newly confirmed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made no promises this week regarding the release of three U. S. prisoners currently being held in a North Korean labor camp.
“We’ve been asking for the release of these detainees for 17 months,” Pompeo said Tuesday, speaking with reporters en route to the North Korean capital of Pyonyang. “We’ll talk about it again. It’d be a great gesture if they’d agree to do so.”
According to Reuters, Pompeo added that he had received no commitments from North Korean officials, but hoped leaders would “do the right thing.”
Pompeo’s comments directly contradict earlier statements by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is currently serving as a member of President Trump’s legal team. On Thursday morning, Giuliani told Fox & Friends that North Korea would be releasing the three prisoners imminently — likely within the day.
“The president of the United States is getting ready to negotiate probably one of our most historic agreements…and we got Kim Jong-un impressed enough to be releasing three prisoners today,” he said, referring to the impending diplomatic summit between Trump and the North Korean leader.
Giuliani’s claims were later rebutted by both the White House and State Department. During a press briefing later on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders noted that Giuliani was not in any official capacity to speak to the press on matters of foreign policy; the State Department on Tuesday morning reaffirmed Sanders’ comments, adding that the former New York City mayor should not be considered an official spokesman for the president.
