Pompeo to visit NK next week
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, announces former senior executive of Ford Motor Company Stephen Biegun, left, to be special envoy for North Korea, at the State Department in Washington, Tuesday. He also announce that he will travel to North Korea next week to continue negotiations to seek denuclearization of Pyongyang. / EPA-Yonhap
By Park Ji-won
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday he will visit North Korea next week to continue negotiations toward denuclearization of Pyongyang. Foreign ministers from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan will also get together to discuss the issue after Pompeo's visit, sources said, Friday.
Pompeo also announced the appointment of Ford Vice President Stephen Biegun as U.S. special envoy to North Korea, saying the two will visit Pyongyang together.
“Steve will direct U.S. policy toward North Korea and lead our efforts to achieve President Trump's goal of the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea, as agreed to by Chairman Kim Jong-un,” Pompeo said at the State Department, Thursday.
Pompeo did not disclose the exact dates of their visit.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo would visit North Korea “relatively soon,” adding, “exact time, date, I don't know but we will be headed out soon.”
The U.S. and North Korea have been in talks to implement an agreement made between their leaders at their historic Singapore summit in June. Their deal includes an agreement in which North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promised to work toward “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” in exchange for security guarantees of their regime.
Pompeo visited North Korea three times in an effort to follow up on that pledge. But the meetings in the North have been criticized for not producing any tangible outcome.
In response to the IAEA's recent report that it has great concern that North Korea is still continuing to develop its nuclear capabilities, Nauert said, “this issue going to take some time. We have been very clear about that. We share this concern.”
“We are working forward to implement the agreements that came out of the Singapore summit.”
Meanwhile, sources said the foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and the U.S. will hold a trilateral summit to follow up on Pompeo's visit to North Korea, according to media reports.
The summit is expected to be held in Tokyo on Aug. 28, but it hasn't been specified yet, the sources added.
In the beginning of August, Pompeo and the South's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha had a bilateral summit in Singapore on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
During the summit, the two reportedly pledged to put their efforts toward implementing the Panmunjeom Declaration which was made between the leaders of the South and North in the landmark April 27 summit.
On Aug. 14, Kang and Pompeo also spoke by phone to discuss efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program and pressure the regime to fully denuclearize, the State Department said.
Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said the South hopes “Pompeo could make progress through the visit to the North in denuclearization and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula.”
Kim added that the appointment of the Ford exec as special envoy “shows the upcoming trip is more important than ever.”