Washington DC, July 16: US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has said on Monday he trusted both the United States and North Korea could “be a little more creative” when both sides resumed their stalled talks aimed at denuclearization of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.
Speaking in a radio interview on “The Sean Hannity Show,” Pompeo did not say when the negotiations would resume. At the end of June, he had said it was expected to take place “sometime in July … probably in the next two or three weeks”, according to Reuters news reports.
President Donald Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a month ago. During the summit, Trump turned into the primary sitting American president to cross into N Korea, and he stated the pair consented to resume working-level talks.
Trump and Kim have met at least three times and held two summits over the denuclearization issue. The negotiations held in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February abruptly failed without reaching any deal, as Trump demanded Kim to fully denuclearize the Korean peninsula, whereas Kim stressed over sanctions relief.
“I hope the North Koreans will come to the table with ideas that they didn’t have the first time,” Pompeo said in the radio interview. “We hope we can be a little more creative too.”
However, Pompeo further added: “The president’s mission hasn’t changed: to fully and finally denuclearize North Korea in a way that we can verify. That’s the mission set for these negotiations.”
While Trump’s most recent gathering with Kim showed compatibility between the two sides, strategy analysts say the different sides show up being no closer to narrowing their disparities. They have yet even to concur a typical meaning of denuclearization, which North Korea has taken to incorporate the U.S. atomic umbrella securing Japan and South Korea.
Pompeo’s recent comments come after Chinese President Xi Jinping encouraged Trump to demonstrate adaptability and flexibility in managing Pyongyang and to straightforwardness authorizes on the nation “in due course”.
South Korean authorities have communicated vulnerability that the discussions between the United States and North Korea can occur this month.
On Sunday, South Korea’s Yonhap news organization cited anonymous strategic sources as saying that the United States had proposed to North Korea that working-level talks be held for this present week and was anticipating a reaction.