SEOUL, June 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – North Korea denounced US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo as an obstruction to nuclear negotiations on Wednesday,
days before President Donald Trump visits Seoul while talks with Pyongyang
are deadlocked.
The process has been stalled since a second summit between Trump and North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in February collapsed, after they failed
to agree on what the North would be willing to give up in exchange for
sanctions relief.
The two sides have had minimal contact and Trump is due to fly to Seoul at
the weekend for talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
But a spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry criticised Trump’s top
diplomat on Wednesday, calling recent comments by Pompeo “a manifestation of
the most extreme hostile acts” against Pyongyang.
The top US diplomat told reporters this week the resumption of working-
level talks with the North was becoming “a very real possibility”, adding:
“Some 80-plus percent of the North Korean economy is sanctioned.”
He immediately corrected himself, saying he had misspoken and the figure
applied to the effect of US sanctions on Iran, but the remarks were
nonetheless deemed “reckless” by Pyongyang.
“If the US sanctions are affecting 80-plus percent of our economy, as
Pompeo mentioned, the question is whether the US target is to raise it up to
100 percent,” the foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by
the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Hostile comments and actions by US policymakers were hampering top-level
efforts to revive the stalled diplomacy, the spokesman added, so that it
would be “difficult” to look forward to “the denuclearisation of the Korean
peninsula”.
On Sunday, KCNA reported that Kim received a personal message “of excellent
content” from the US president, just days after Trump said he received a
“beautiful letter” from the North Korean leader.
Pompeo visited Pyongyang four times last year as Trump’s top envoy to
arrange his two summits with the North Korean leader.
But since Hanoi, North Korea has accused Washington of acting in “bad
faith” and demanded the removal of top US officials.
Last month the North slammed National Security Advisor John Bolton, calling
him a “war maniac” and “war monger”.
Pyongyang, however, has refrained from insulting Trump, who has expressed
confidence in his relationship with Kim and even claimed they had “fallen in
love”.