Korean delegation embarks on Pyongyang trip for summit anniversary
- by Muriel Colon
- in Global Media
- — Oct 7, 2018
USA officials have said the sanctions will remain in place until North Korea has "fully" and "verifiably" denuclearized. However, the proposal could face pushback from the United States because it calls only for Yongbyon's closure, which is a relatively reversible process.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo distanced himself Wednesday from a previously stated goal of getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons by the end of President Donald Trump's first term in January 2021. He said there's continuing global support for economic sanctions to remain on North Korea in the meantime.
Critics have pointed out that the Singapore declaration contained no firm commitments from North Korea to dismantle its nuclear and missile programs and United States officials have expressed frustration at North Korea's evasion of sanctions.
North Korea has placed a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests, dismantled parts of weapons testing site, and has pushed for an easing of sanctions before it completely relinquishes its nuclear arsenal.
"The United States is highly unlikely to get on board, especially the Senate, unless there's concrete steps towards denuclearization", she said.
Pompeo will open his trip on Saturday in Tokyo, where he will meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has long championed a hard line on North Korea but recently said he was willing to meet Kim.
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Rep. Park Kyung-mee, a spokeswoman of the ruling progressive Democratic Party, said in a statement that this year's National Foundation Day was more meaningful due to better prospects of establishing permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, adding that 70 years of conflict with the North was "relieved at once". The invitation to return to Pyongyang was made during a meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on the sidelines of their United Nations General Assembly last week.
He told The Associated Press that the U.S.is "not going to sit around holding the bouquet forever" waiting for Kim to follow through on the commitments he made at the June summit with Trump in Singapore. The delegation flew to North Korea on Thursday for a joint celebration of the anniversary of a 2007 summit and to possibly hold further peace talks. "And we would go back and forth", Trump said during a rally in West Virginia.
Reuters reported on Sunday that China had cancelled a security meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis planned for October.
While chairing a meeting of the UN Security Council on September 27, Pompeo urged countries to fully implement UN sanctions until North Korea was fully denuclearized.
"In any relationship you have your high points, you have your medium points and with some countries you have your low points", she said. "I think if our leaders have relatively friendly relations, that that's a good thing", she said.
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