Todd Bishop
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday (30th) that North Korea’s denuclearization talks are expected to resume in mid-July, but it is not certain who Pyongyang will send as negotiating opponents.
US President Donald Trump crossed the Panmunjom military demarcation line earlier on the same day and then held talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The two sides agreed to hold talks again. Pompeo said that the negotiations may be held in two or three weeks, and the big chance is around mid-July, but the location remains to be determined. He said that the two sides will begin to exchange views on this, while emphasizing that sanctions against North Korea are still valid.
Pompeo is excited about the return of the US and the DPRK to the negotiating table, saying that the two sides are looking for a starting point for the negotiations, so that everyone can assess the possibility of moving forward. He said that after listening to Kim Jong-un’s speech on Sunday, he believed that there was already a consensus on re-negotiation.
For the negotiating candidate, Pompeo said that the United States would be led by North Korean representative Stephen Biegun, who would be led by one of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but he did not disclose anything further. After the second summit of the US-DPRK summit held in February, North Korea reported that it was accountable to officials such as Jin Yingzhe and Jin Hezhe, who were in charge of negotiations in Hanoi, and the vice foreign minister, Cui Shanji, was responsible for the new round of talks.
Pompeo believes that Kim Jong-un intends to solve some important problems, and Washington hopes to do so in time, and agrees that Trump “does not need to rush to solve the problem.”
