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South Korea says Pompeo may bring American detainees back from North | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, may return from North Korea with three American detainees, according to a South Korean presidential official. | |
Pompeo arrived in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Wednesday from Japan and headed to the city’s Koryo Hotel for meetings about an upcoming summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. | |
Trump earlier broke the news of Pompeo’s second visit to North Korea in less than six weeks and said the two countries had agreed on a date and location for the summit, though he stopped short of providing details. | |
While Trump said it would be a “great thing” if the American detainees were freed, Pompeo, speaking to reporters en route to Pyongyang, said he had not received such a commitment but hoped North Korea would “do the right thing”. | |
“We’ll talk about it again today,” he said. “I think it’d be a great gesture if they would choose to do so.” | |
The three still being held are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST. | |
An official at South Korea’s presidential Blue House said Pompeo was expected to secure the release of three American detainees. | |
Trump and Kim are expected to meet later this month or early in June for talks that would have been nearly unthinkable a year ago, when the two mercurial leaders were trading barbs and Pyongyang tested a barrage of missiles. | Trump and Kim are expected to meet later this month or early in June for talks that would have been nearly unthinkable a year ago, when the two mercurial leaders were trading barbs and Pyongyang tested a barrage of missiles. |
But after months of sabre-rattling, and a historic summit between Kim and the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, the mood is decidedly more upbeat, and Trump has said a date and location are already set – though he did not divulge any specifics. | |
“At this very moment, secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un,” Trump said. | |
“We have our meeting schedule. We have our meeting set. The location is picked. The time and date. Everything is picked. And we look forward to having a very great success,” he said. | “We have our meeting schedule. We have our meeting set. The location is picked. The time and date. Everything is picked. And we look forward to having a very great success,” he said. |
“We think relationships are building with North Korea. We will see how it all works out. Maybe it won’t. But it can be a great thing for North Korea, South Korea and the entire world.” | “We think relationships are building with North Korea. We will see how it all works out. Maybe it won’t. But it can be a great thing for North Korea, South Korea and the entire world.” |
Pompeo flew out of Washington under cover of darkness late on Monday aboard an Air Force 757 accompanied by a handful of senior aides, a security detail and two journalists: one from the Associated Press and one from the Washington Post. | |
Pompeo, who first traveled to North Korea as CIA chief in early April, is only the second sitting secretary of state to visit the reclusive nation with which the US is still technically at war. The first was Madeleine Albright in 2000 who went as part of an unsuccessful bid to arrange a meeting between the then president, Bill Clinton, and Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il. | Pompeo, who first traveled to North Korea as CIA chief in early April, is only the second sitting secretary of state to visit the reclusive nation with which the US is still technically at war. The first was Madeleine Albright in 2000 who went as part of an unsuccessful bid to arrange a meeting between the then president, Bill Clinton, and Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il. |
Pompeo told reporters aboard his plane that his first visit was to test the seriousness of North Korea’s pledges to South Korea on easing tensions. This trip is “to put in place a framework for a successful summit”, he said. | Pompeo told reporters aboard his plane that his first visit was to test the seriousness of North Korea’s pledges to South Korea on easing tensions. This trip is “to put in place a framework for a successful summit”, he said. |
Pompeo’s visit follows talks between Kim and China’s Xi Jinping – their second meeting in six weeks – at which Kim reiterated his commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. | |
Kim’s unannounced trip to the Chinese port city of Dalian was his second visit since March, highlighting efforts by the cold war-era allies to mend relations that cooled as Beijing supported UN sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. | |
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