The US Secretary of State is playing down North Korea's claim that America had a 'gangster-like mindset' during recent talks on denuclearisation. Mike Pompeo says he is eager to see Kim Jong Un follow through on the North's commitment to denuclearise the Korean peninsula. </s> SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho shook hands and exchanged words and smiles at a Southeast Asian security forum on Saturday in Singapore.

Pompeo said before the brief encounter during a group photo session at the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) regional forum that he had not held talks with Ri during his visit to Singapore.

Pompeo, who has been leading the U.S. negotiating in efforts to get North Korea to denuclearize, said earlier the process of ending the North’s nuclear program would take time but that he was optimistic that it would happen. </s> US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed Pyongyang's "important commitments" made by Pyongyang during Wednesday's inter-Korean summit, adding Washington was ready to begin negotiating immediately to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea "by January 2021."

In a statement, Pompeo said he spoke with his North Korean counterpart Wednesday morning and invited him to meet in New York next week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

The statement came after the North's leader Kim Jong Un agreed to make a historic visit to Seoul soon and close a missile testing site in front of international inspectors in a meeting with the South's President Moon Jae-in.

Progress on the key issue of the North's nuclear arsenal was limited, but the two signed a document to strengthen ties between the two halves of the divided peninsula.

Building on a growing rapprochement, they agreed to create a facility to hold family reunions at any time, work towards joining up road and rail links, and mount a combined bid for the 2032 Olympics.

"On the basis of these important commitments, the United States is prepared to engage immediately in negotiations to transform U.S.-DPRK relations," said Pompeo.

In addition to Pompeo's meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, "we have invited North Korean representatives to meet our Special Representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, in Vienna, Austria at the earliest opportunity," the statement continued.

"This will mark the beginning of negotiations to transform U.S.-DPRK relations through the process of rapid denuclearization of North Korea, to be completed by January 2021, as committed by Chairman Kim, and to construct a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula."

Kim's trip to Seoul would be the first by a Northern leader since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, when hostilities ceased with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving them technically in a state of war.

In their agreement, the North also said it would "permanently close" a missile engine testing site and launch facility in Tongchang-ri "in the presence of experts from relevant nations." </s> SINGAPORE (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Russia, China and other countries on Saturday against any violation of international sanctions on North Korea that could reduce pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons. Pompeo's comments came on the heels of a new United Nations report that found North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and is violating U.N. sanctions, including through illicit ship-to-ship transfers of oil.

North Korea quickly shot back at Washington, with Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho saying that recent moves by the U.S. are "alarming." Ri and Pompeo both made their comments at an Asian security forum in Singapore.

Speaking on the sidelines of the forum, Pompeo told reporters that the U.S. has new, credible reports that Russia is violating U.N. sanctions by allowing joint ventures with North Korean companies and issuing new permits for North Korean guest workers. He said Washington would take "very seriously" any violations, and called for them to be roundly condemned and reversed.

"If these reports prove accurate, and we have every reason to believe that they are, that would be in violation," Pompeo said, noting that the U.N. Security Council had voted unanimously in favor of the sanctions. "I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something we will discuss with Moscow."

"We expect the Russians and all countries to abide to the U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea," he said. "Any violation that detracts from the world's goal of finally, fully denuclearizing North Korea would be something that America would take very seriously."

Later Saturday, Pompeo went to greet Ri during a group photo of the ASEAN Regional Forum ministerial meeting. They shook hands and briefly exchanged smiles and a few words. Pompeo then went back to his place.

Ri later addressed fellow foreign ministers at the security forum, though Pompeo had already left to fly to Indonesia.

Ri said that North Korea has "initiated goodwill measures" by declaring a moratorium on nuclear tests and rocket launches and dismantling a nuclear testing ground, but that the U.S. has responded by "raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK and showing the attitude to retreat even from declaring the end of war, a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean Peninsula." North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the U.S. to go back to the old, far from its leader's intention," Ri said.

"Worse still, extremely inappropriate moves are shown of putting pressure on other countries not to send high-level delegations to the celebrations marking the 70th founding anniversary of the DPRK in September this year," Ri said.

Later Saturday, Pompeo said in a tweet that he "had the chance to speak with" Ri on Saturday. "We had a quick, polite exchange," Pompeo said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department said President Donald Trump's reply to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's latest letter was hand-delivered to Ri in Singapore.

Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Trump's reply to Kim was given to Ri by Sung Kim, the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines who has been leading logistical negotiations with the North on its pledge to denuclearize. Nauert would not address the content of Trump's letter to Kim.

The White House said earlier in the week that Kim had sent a new letter to Trump and that the president had written a response.

At the United Nations, a summary of a report by experts monitoring U.N. sanctions against North Korea was sent to the Security Council on Friday that said North Korea is continuing with both its nuclear and missile programs. And, in addition to the oil transfers, it said the North was violating sanctions by transferring coal at sea and flouting an arms embargo and financial sanctions.

Late Friday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley raised the alarm, saying that "talk is cheap." ''Russia cannot support sanctions with their words in the Security Council only to violate them with their actions," she said in a statement. She made the remarks as the U.S. asked the Security Council to add a North Korean bank executive, a North Korean company, a Chinese company and a Russian bank to the U.N. sanctions blacklist.

In his discussions with Southeast Asian officials in Singapore, Pompeo said he had implored them all to "strictly enforce all sanctions," including an end to ship-to-ship transfers of oil for North Korea, and had been encouraged by the response.

Despite the warning to Russia, Pompeo said he remained optimistic that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will follow through on his pledge to Trump to denuclearize. But he said the timeline for the North's full and final denuclearization remains a work in progress.

Earlier, in an interview with a Singapore's Channel News Asia, Pompeo had said the pace for the dismantlement of the North's nuclear weapons program would rest with Kim. "The ultimate timeline for denuclearization will be set by Chairman Kim, at least in part," he said. "The decision is his."

At the news conference, however, Pompeo appeared to step back from that comment, noting that the timeline is subject to negotiation between Washington and Pyongyang. He recalled that Kim had committed to denuclearization at the historic summit with Trump on June 12 in Singapore and that both sides "have been working since then to develop the process through which that will be achieved."

"The process of achieving denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is one that I think we have all known will take some time," Pompeo said, adding later: "I am optimistic that we will get this done in a timeline and the world will celebrate what the U.N. Security Council has demanded."

Pompeo said on Friday that while there's "still a ways to go," the United States remains "confident" in North Korea's commitment to denuclearize.

On Thursday, the White House announced that Trump had received a new letter from Kim and had responded quickly with a letter of his own. The correspondence came amid fresh concerns over Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearization despite a rosy picture of progress painted by Trump.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday the process of ending North Korea’s nuclear program would take time but he was optimistic that it would be achieved within a timeline set by the leaders of the two countries.

It was important to maintain diplomatic and economic pressure, Pompeo said on the sidelines of an Asian regional conference, adding the United States took very seriously any relaxation of U.N. sanctions against North Korea.

“I’m optimistic that we will get this done in the timeline and the world will celebrate what the U.N. Security Council has demanded,” Pompeo told a news conference.

“The work has begun. The process of achieving denuclearization of the (Korean) peninsula is one that I think we have all known would take some time.”

He said there was every reason to believe the reports about Russia’s issuance of visas to North Korean workers were accurate, which would be in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

“I want to remind every nation that has supported these resolutions that this is a serious issue and something that we will discuss with Moscow,” he said.

“We expect the Russians and all countries to abide by the U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforce sanctions on North Korea.”

Russia has denied a report by the Wall Street Journal that said Moscow was allowing thousands of fresh North Korean laborers into the country and granting them work permits in a potential breach of U.N sanctions.

Russia’s ambassador to North Korea also denied Moscow was flouting U.N. restrictions on oil supplies to North Korea.

Pompeo flew to Singapore, where the U.S. and North Korean leaders held a landmark summit in June, to attend meetings of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

At a group photo session at an ASEAN security forum, Pompeo walked up to North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, who was also attending, and shook hands and exchanged words and smiles.

Pompeo, who has been leading the U.S. negotiations to get the North to abandon its nuclear program, had primarily engaged with Kim Yong Chol, a top North Korean party official and former spy agency chief, and not Ri.

U.S. Ambassador Sung Kim, who has long been a key negotiator on the nuclear issue, said earlier he had no plans to meet the North Koreans in Singapore.

At the summit on June 12, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who is seeking relief from tough sanctions, committed to work toward denuclearization, but Pyongyang has offered no details on how it might go about this.

Pompeo suggested on Friday on the flight to Singapore that continued work on weapons programs by North Korea was inconsistent with its leader’s commitment to denuclearize.

On Monday, a senior U.S. official said U.S. spy satellites had detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States.

According to a confidential U.N. report seen by Reuters on Friday, North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs.

On Saturday, Pompeo was more upbeat about making progress on the denuclearization agreement, saying: “We’ve been working since then to develop the process by which that would be achieved.” </s> U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday brushed aside North Korea's accusation of "gangster-like" demands, maintaining that his third visit to the country was producing results but vowing that sanctions would remain until Pyongyang follows through on leader Kim Jong Un's pledge to get rid of his nuclear weapons.

Pompeo downplayed North Korea's statement after the talks in which the country's foreign ministry bashed hopes for a quick deal and accused the U.S. of making "gangster-like" demands aimed at forcing it to abandon nuclear weapons.

The North's statement, coming so soon after Pompeo's trip, was sure to fuel growing skepticism in the U.S. over how serious Kim is about giving up his nuclear arsenal.

"If those requests were gangster-like, the world is a gangster," Pompeo said, noting that numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions have demanded that the North rid itself of nuclear weapons and end its ballistic missile program.

"People are going to make stray comments after meetings," Pompeo said. "If I paid attention to the press, I'd go nuts."

Speaking after meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Tokyo, Pompeo said his two days of talks in Pyongyang had been productive and conducted in good faith. But following the stinging commentary from the North, he allowed that the goal of denuclearization would be difficult and that much work remains.

"The road ahead will be difficult and challenging and we know critics will try to minimize what we have achieved," he said. Two days of talks with senior North Korean officials had "made progress," he said, and included a "detailed and substantive discussion about the next steps."

Those include the formation of working group to determine exactly how North Korea's denuclearization will be verified and a Thursday meeting with Pentagon officials to discuss the return of remains of Americans soldiers killed during the Korean War.

Pompeo sought to dispel suggestions that the Trump administration has backed down from demanding the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of the North's nuclear weapons. He said North Korea understood that denuclearization must be "complete" and "verified."

However, Pompeo said the progress achieved thus far did not warrant any concessions. "While we are encouraged by the progress of these talks, progress alone does not justify the easing of the sanctions regime," he said.

"Sanctions will remain in place until final fully verified denuclearization as agreed to by Chairman Kim Jong Un has occurred," he said.

After the historic U.S.-North Korea summit in Singapore, President Donald Trump declared the North was no longer a threat and would hand over the remains of American soldiers. Yet three weeks later, the two sides were still divided on all the issues, including exactly what denuclearization means and how it might be verified. And, the promised remains have yet to be delivered.

Just hours after Pompeo arrived in Tokyo, the North blasted the discussions, saying the visit had been "regrettable."

In a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, the foreign ministry said the outcome of Pompeo's talks with senior official Kim Yong Chol was "very concerning" because it has led to a "dangerous phase that might rattle our willingness for denuclearization that had been firm."

"We had expected that the U.S. side would offer constructive measures that would help build trust based on the spirit of the leaders' summit ... we were also thinking about providing reciprocal measures," it said. "However, the attitude and stance the United States showed in the first high-level meeting (between the countries) was no doubt regrettable. Our expectations and hopes were so naive it could be called foolish."

It said the North had raised the issue of formally ending the Korean War, which concluded with an armistice and not a peace treaty, but the U.S. came up with a variety of "conditions and excuses" to delay a declaration. It downplayed the significance of the United States suspending its military exercises with South Korea, something trumpeted by Trump after the summit as a success, by saying it made a larger concession by blowing up the tunnels at a nuclear test site.

In criticizing the talks with Pompeo, however, it carefully avoided attacking Trump personally, saying "we wholly maintain our trust toward President Trump," but stressed that Washington must not allow "headwinds" against the "wills of the leaders." That appeared to be a reference to Trump's national security adviser John Bolton, a prominent North Korea hawk who has been vilified by Pyongyang in the past. Pompeo spoke with Trump, Bolton and White House chief of staff John Kelly on Saturday before his second round of meetings with Kim Yong Chol.

A former top U.S. diplomat for Asia, Daniel Russel, said the setback was to be expected and warned Trump he is engaged in a long negotiation that would not produce easy quick, made for television results that the president likely wants.

"Dealing with North Korea is hard because Kim Jong Un wants it to be hard," said Russel, who was assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Obama administration. "If you make the Americans fight for every inch, the Americans will start measuring progress in inches — and will wind up paying by the inch. At this point, even to get the North Koreans to follow through with the return of Korean War-era MIA remains, would feel like a big win for Pompeo, even though it wouldn't affect the nuclear threat."

"Kim can afford to play hardball because it's clear to him that Trump, who has already told Americans they can sleep soundly because the threat is now over, badly wants a deal," Russel said. "And when you want it bad, you get it bad. Why should the North Koreans make concessions to one of Trump's aides given the president's record of undercutting them?"

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> May 31 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday he was confident talks with North Korean officials were moving in the right direction toward a summit and that a North Korean envoy will travel to Washington to deliver a personal letter from leader Kim Jong Un to President Donald Trump.

"Our two countries face a pivotal moment in our relationship in which it could be nothing short of tragic to let this opportunity go to waste," Pompeo said after meetings with North Korean vice chairman Kim Yong Chol in New York. (Reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Washington; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) </s> The following content is sourced from external partners. We cannot guarantee that it is suitable for the visually or hearing impaired.

This content was published on October 2, 2018 11:12 PM

FILE PHOTO - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Singapore August 4, 2018. REUTERS/Edgar Su

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to North Korea at the weekend for denuclearization talks with the country's leader Kim Jong Un, the State Department said on Tuesday, calling this "forward progress," despite negative signals from Pyongyang.

Pompeo will also travel to Japan, South Korea and China from Oct. 6-8, and will be in North Korea on Sunday local time, or Saturday in U.S. Eastern Time.

"I think it shows forward progress and momentum that the secretary is making his fourth trip back in less than a year," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing, referring to the Pyongyang stop.

"Of course, we have quite a ways to go but we look forward to the next steps in this conversation."

Pompeo's visit comes ahead of a planned second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump. 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.

Nauert said the stops in Japan, South Korea and China were intended to brief counterparts on the Pyongyang talks. She said he would meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Taro Kono in Tokyo and President Moon Jae-in and Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha in Seoul, while in Beijing he would meet counterparts to discuss "bilateral, regional and global issues."

At an unprecedented June meeting with Trump, Kim pledged to work towards denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but his actions have fallen short of Washington's demands for a complete inventory of its nuclear weapons and irreversible steps to give up an arsenal that potentially threatens the United States.

Trump has nevertheless hailed progress and on Saturday took his enthusiasm for his detente with Kim to new heights by declaring at a rally with supporters that "we fell in love" after exchanging letters.

Earlier that day, North Korea's Ri struck a different tone, telling the United Nations that continued U.S. sanctions were deepening Pyongyang's mistrust in the United States and there was no way the country would disarm unilaterally under such circumstances.

Ri said North Korea had taken "significant goodwill measures," such as stopping nuclear and missiles tests and dismantling a nuclear test site, but there had been no corresponding response from Washington.

North Korea has been seeking a formal end to the 1950-53 Korea War, but the United States has said Pyongyang must give up its nuclear weapons first. Washington has also resisted calls to relax tough international sanctions.

Pompeo's last trip to North Korea did not go well. He left Pyongyang in July hailing progress, only for North Korea to denounce him for making "gangster-like demands."

In a commentary on Tuesday, North Korea's official KCNA news agency said declaring the end of the 1950-53 Korean War could "never be a bargaining chip" for denuclearization and said experts calling for North Korea to declare details of its arms programs were "spouting ... rubbish."

Pompeo had planned to travel to North Korea in August but Trump cancelled the trip at the last moment and publicly acknowledged for the first time that his efforts to get Pyongyang to denuclearize had stalled.

Nauert said she did not agree that talks had stalled and when asked if Trump's comments on Saturday had been helpful, replied: "I think if our leaders have relatively friendly relations, that that's a good thing. That that can only help us to achieve our final goal."

She said that in the meantime, sanctions would remain in place.

"We are not easing the pressure in that regard at all," she said, while responding when asked if Washington was considering any kind of peace declaration: "We are not. Nothing has changed with regard to our policy."

Pompeo's trip to China comes at a time of deteriorating relations and tit-for-tat tariffs sparked by Trump's accusations of unfair Chinese trade practices. Last week, Trump accused China of seeking to meddle in the Nov. 6 U.S. congressional elections, saying it did not want his Republican Party to do well.

Reuters reported on Sunday that China had cancelled a security meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis planned for October.

Asked if Pompeo would attend the diplomatic side of the so-called Diplomatic and Security Dialogue, Nauert said: "The trip is, as far as I understand, to have conversations about North Korea and other issues of bilateral concern. I don't have anything beyond that right now."

"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 am not going to characterize our relationship with China in any one of those three ways, but relationships can ebb and flow over time, so we certainly have a lot to talk about with the government of China." </s> The United States aspires to have North Korea as a "close partner" and not an enemy, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, noting that the U.S. has often in history become good friends with former adversaries. 

 

 Pompeo said he had told North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of that hope during his brief visit to Pyongyang earlier this week, during which he finalized details of the June 12 summit between Kim and President Donald Trump and secured the release of three Americans imprisoned in the country. 

 

 He said his talks with Kim on Wednesday had been "warm," ''constructive" and "good" and that he made clear that if North Korea gets rid of its nuclear weapons in a permanent and verifiable way, the U.S. is willing to help the impoverished nation boost its economy and living stands to levels like those in prosperous South Korea. 

 

 "We had good conversations about the histories of our two nations, the challenges that we have had between us," Pompeo told reporters at a news conference Friday with South Korea's visiting foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha. "We talked about the fact that America has often in history had adversaries who we are now close partners with and our hope that we could achieve the same with respect to North Korea." 

 

 He did not mention other adversaries by name, but Pompeo and others have often noted that the U.S. played a major role in rebuilding Japan and the European axis powers in the wake of World War II. With U.S. help, those countries recovered from the devastation of conflict. 

 

 "If North Korea takes bold action to quickly denuclearize, the United States is prepared to work with North Korea to achieve prosperity on the par with our South Korean friends," he said. 

 

 Kang praised the upcoming meeting between Trump and Kim in Singapore as an "historic" opportunity, but added a few notes of skepticism as well. Amid concerns that North Korea will demand the U.S. withdraw its troops from neighboring South Korea, Kang emphasized that the U.S. military presence there must be "a matter for the U.S.-ROK alliance first and foremost," using an acronym for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea. 

 

 She said the U.S. troop presence in the South for the past 65 years has played a "crucial role for deterrence," peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. Therefore, she said, any change in the size of the U.S. forces in South Korea should not be on the table at the summit. 

 

 "The next few weeks will be critical, requiring air-tight coordination between our two countries," Kang said, noting that South Korean President Moon Jae-in would be in Washington to see Trump later this month. 

 

 Since Trump announced plans to hold a summit with Kim, questions have been raised continually about whether the two leaders have the same objective in mind when they speak about "denuclearization." To the U.S., that means the North giving up the nuclear weapons it has already built. But North Korea has said it's willing to talk now because it's already succeeded in becoming a nuclear-armed state, fueling skepticism that the North would truly be willing to give those weapons up. 

 

 Pompeo said there would need to be "complete" and "verifiable" denuclearization that would remove North Korea as a threat to the South, the United States and the rest of the world. He said a major inspection and monitoring regime would be required to ensure the North's compliance. 

 

 "I think there is complete agreement about what the ultimate objectives are," Pompeo said, though he declined to offer more detail. 

 

 Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calls for North Korea to follow Vietnam's path in overcoming past hostilities with the United States.