Pompeo wrote on Twitter Sunday that his trip to Pyongyang was "good" and that it signalled "progress on agreements made at [the] Singapore Summit." Pompeo's talks with Kim led to the agreement of creating a joint working group that would be tasked with outlining a detailed schedule on Pyongyang's denuclearization. The group would also have to work toward planning out a second summit between both countries.
After Pompeo ended his hours-long meeting with Kim, he flew down to South Korea, elaborating on denuclearization steps that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea would be taking to move talks forward. Those steps include allowing an international team of inspectors to take a gander at the North's Punggye-ri nuclear test site to confirm that it had been dismantled.
Chun told Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear on Tuesday that Pompeo's meeting with Kim was a welcome feat, as it offered progress in talks between Pyongyang and Washington.
"The biggest point or accomplishment is basically the reset in stalled negotiations between the United States and North Korea," Chun told hosts Brian Becker and John Kiriakou. "Since the Singapore summit, not many things happened, and in the meantime we had… neocons and also skeptics and people with negative perspective… dominating the media."
However, it's not just Kim and Pompeo that deserve praise for the meeting, she stressed, before noting that South Korean President Moon Jae-in also helped in the efforts by playing the go-between for the US and North Korea. "He basically helped to reset stalled negotiations," Chun told Becker.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told leaders at the 2018 United Nations General Assembly meeting, which ran from late September to early October in New York City, that Pyongyang will not commit to giving up its nuclear weapons until Washington offers up its own concessions in turn.
"We do not see any corresponding response from the US," the official said. "Without any trust in the US, there will be no confidence in our national security, and under such circumstances there is no way we will unilaterally disarm ourselves first."
Since the June Singapore summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump, North Korea has declared a moratorium on its nuclear tests, shut down a missile engine production site, released detainees and handed over the remains of US soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War.
And yet, despite all of the concessions offered up by the DPRK, it's unlikely that it will ever fully step away from its nuclear arsenal unless the US offers substantial concessions, according to Chun. "One thing that's for sure is that… North Korea is never going to disarm unilaterally," she said.
The historic June summit between Trump and Kim concluded with both world leaders signing a joint declaration that indicated both countries would commit to establishing new ties with one another, join efforts to build a stable regime for Pyongyang and commit to the immediate repatriation of US soldiers killed during the Korean War. The declaration, of course, also included a commitment from North Korea to work toward complete denuclearization.
