Negotiations between U.S. and North Korean officials on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula are moving into concrete discussions about specific weapons, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace.
“We’ve had extended conversations about this. I don’t want to get into the details of the negotiations that are underway. But we’ve talked about particular facilities, particular weapon systems, those conversations are underway,” Pompeo said that morning.
Wallace pressed Pompeo on the issue after playing a clip of President Donald Trump earlier in the week claiming to have achieved “tremendous progress” in the talks with North Korea.
“The North Koreans have not agreed to give up a single missile, a single nuclear weapon, nor are they giving us the inventory of their arsenal. Is that tremendous progress,” Wallace asked Pompeo.
The secretary of state told Wallace that “you have to step back to where we began this administration, with a well-developed program inside of North Korea. We have now achieved the ceasing of missile testing, the ceasing of nuclear testing. We have gotten the remains of 55 Americans. We’re in deep discussions about how to proceed with respect to denuclearization.”
Wallace added that in a meeting last week between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, “They talked about quote, ‘corresponding measures,’ such as a treaty to end the Korean War. One, is that on the table?”
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Pompeo responded that the Trump administration’s position “hasn’t changed one jot from the time we entered this discussion … We’ve had extended conversations about this. I don’t want to get into the details of the negotiations that are underway. But we’ve talked about particular facilities, particular weapon systems — those conversations are underway. And we are hopeful that we can deliver this outcome for the world.”
As the talks sparked by President Trump’s June summit meeting with Kim in Singapore continue, so do the U.S. and U.N. economic sanctions that pressured North Korea into negotiations, Pompeo said.
And the talks are going forward without the U.S. making concessions that deviate from the path Trump laid out in the Singapore summit, he said.
“What we’ve made clear is the economic sanctions — the driving force to achieve the outcome we’re looking for — will not be released.”
“Everybody’s got their own idea what a concession might be. Some thought it was a concession for President Trump to go to Singapore. I certainly didn’t think so; President Trump doesn’t,” Pompeo told Wallace.
“But what we’ve made clear is the economic sanctions — the driving force to achieve the outcome we’re looking for — will not be released. And the U.N. Security Council will not reduce those sanctions, until such time as we’ve achieved that final denuclearization.”
Wallace additionally asked Pompeo about the status of U.S. relations with China in view of the “trade war” that has developed as a result of Trump’s tough talk and imposition of significant tariffs on Chinese goods.
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“We’re going to win it. We’re going to get an outcome, which forces China to behave in a way that if you want to be a power, a global power — transparency, rule of law — you don’t steal intellectual property, the fundamental principles of trade around the world: fairness, reciprocity,” Pompeo said.
“Those are the things President Trump has told his counterpart there, who he very much likes. Those are the things the American people are demanding and the American workers deserve.”
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