In a worrying sign that Trump's progress to "normalize" relations with Kim Jong Un may be on the verge of collapse, North Korea lashed out at the US for its "extremely troubling" attitude just hours after it held the latest round of discussions with Mike Pompeo, warning that it its “firm, steadfast” resolve to give up its nuclear programs may falter.
North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency said the result of talks with the delegation headed by the US Secretary of State was "regrettable", as a result of the US insisting on complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation, which however should hardly come as a surprise at this stage in negotiations, after Kim explicitly agreed to just that four weeks ago.
In the statement released hours after Pompeo departed Tokyo after meeting with Kim Yong Chol, a senior aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman accused the US is trying to unilaterally pressure Pyongyang into abandoning its nuclear weapons by insisting on unilateral complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation (CVID), and said trust between countries is in a "dangerous stage", while adding that North Korea still trusts President Donald Trump.
The statement prompted an immediate response from the president's blue-checked twitter critics slamming Trump's summit with Kim.
A few weeks ago, Trump declared there was no more threat from NK. Today, North Korea described interactions with Sec of State Pompeo as "regrettable" and said there is a push to force unilateral denuclearization. Trump's response to the latter? Attack news outlets at home. https://t.co/gPuU8he5vD
Statement from North Korea today slamming U.S. makes clear that Trump got totally snookered and duped by Kim Jung Un. Trump gave a mass murderer worldwide legitimacy in return for nothing. North Koreans realized the easiest person to con is a narcissist. It only takes flattery.
Just to be clear: this is exactly what the much-derided “experts” from past administrations warned about from Day 1.
“De-nuclearization” means something entirely diff to North Korea and US.
Trump and his claque apparently not aware of that. https://t.co/DioxbIhNqd
Suggesting that something may have been lost in translation, and that a broad disagreement between the US and North Korea remains, as Pompeo departed Pyongyang he said he had made progress “on almost all of the central issues” in the talks, including on setting a timeline for its denuclearisation, though more work remained to be done.
According to Reuters, Pompeo said that U.S. negotiators and their North Korean counterparts discussed the idea of Pyongyang making a full declaration...