Pompeo ‘confident’ of second Trump-Kim summit

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Washington DC [USA], Jan 5 : United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has said that he is “confident” that a second meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will take place soon.
The top US diplomat opined that the two leaders would be able to make some progress towards the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear weapon programme in the proposed meeting, Yonhap News Agency reported.
While admitting that a “lot of work” was to be done, Pompeo, on Friday, said: “I am confident that in the next short period of time, President Trump and Chairman Kim will get the chance to meet again and truly create a much better, safer America with less threat of not only nuclear weapons being launched at us but nuclear proliferation as well.”
Pompeo also acknowledged that the much-talked second meeting between Trump and Kim may not led to the communist country’s denuclearisation. However, he stated that the exercise would be good not only for the Korean peninsula, but also the entire world.
“I don’t want to tell you exactly what our negotiating strategy is. But suffice it to say, I think we have set the conditions where we can make real progress when Chairman Kim and President Trump meet and take down the threat to the United States and to the world that has been holding America hostage for so long in North Korea,” he underlined.
“It’ll be good for South Korea. It’ll be good for Japan. It’ll be good for all of the world,” Pompeo added.
Earlier this week, Trump said that he received a “great letter” from Kim and expressed hope that he would get a chance to meet the North Korean leader in the near future.
Kim, in his New Year’s speech, threatened that his country would have to “seek a new way” if the US “does not make good on its promises” with regard to denuclearisation and continues with sanctions.
Even though engagements between Washington and Pyongyang reached new heights in 2018 with the unprecedented first meeting between the US President and Kim at Singapore in June, the last few months of the year saw a stalemate in relations.
North Korea, on the one hand, has asked for corresponding measures by the US for its efforts towards denuclearisation. The US, on the other hand, has pushed for complete denuclearisation before a relaxation in sanctions.