INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Mike Pompeo had earlier said his talks with North Korea were very productive.In a sharp signal that denuclearization negotiations with North
Korea will be drawn out and difficult, Pyongyang on Saturday lambasted the U.S
stance as regrettable, gangster-like and cancerous, directly contradicting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's rosy assessment that his two
days of talks had been "productive."A harsh statement from an unnamed spokesman for the Foreign Ministry was carried on the state-run Korea
Central News Agency just hours after Pompeo left Pyongyang on Saturday and told reporters that significant progress had been made "in every
element" of what he characterized as "good-faith negotiations." Pyongyang crushed that appraisal, saying the United States had betrayed the
spirit of the June 12 Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un."The U.S
side came up only with its unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization," the statement said."The issues the U.S
side insisted on during the talks were the same cancerous ones that the past U.S
administrations had insisted on," it added.Though North Korea still has faith in Trump, the statement said, it warned that the U.S
approach had brought the two countries to a "dangerous" stage that could "rattle our willingness for denuclearization."It was unclear
whether the North Korean statement represented potential doom for meaningful negotiations, as some analysts believed, or was just
Pyongyang's standard negotiating style, as others asserted
It exposed the fragility of discussions at the center of Trump's foreign policy and raised questions about Pyongyang's intentions.At the
very least, the statement was an embarrassment for Pompeo, who has repeatedly said Kim has assured him personally that North Korea is
willing to give up its nuclear weapons
But Pompeo did not meet with the North Korean leader on this trip, as he did on two previous visits and as some administration officials had
hoped he would this time as well.In its return to pre-Singapore bellicose rhetoric, the ministry's statement also served as a rebuttal to
Trump, who has declared the North Korean nuclear threat over and done with, even though nothing in the joint declaration signed in Singapore
The two countries do not even agree on what the concept of denuclearization means.After the Singapore summit Trump had declared the North
Korean nuclear threat over and done with.Some analysts saw no reason for alarm in Pyongyang's downbeat version of events, considering it a
routine North Korean negotiating tactic rather than a full-blown retreat from Pyongyang's seeming commitments."They're upping the ante for
what they want, and downplaying what we want," said Bill Richardson, who has negotiated with North Korea for prisoner releases
They're very skilled at sending messages
And their message is that this negotiation is not going to be easy
And it's going to be very costly
So you'd better be prepared to deliver."But Evans Revere, a former U.S
diplomat with a long history of negotiating with North Korea, said it was evident that the talks in Pyongyang had not gone well - and that
it appears North Korea may have no intention of actually denuclearizing in the way the United States would want."Pompeo appears to have
presented the North Koreans with some demands and requirements for real moves toward denuclearization, as opposed to the symbolic steps and
empty language Pyongyang has been using so far
He deserves credit for doing so," Revere wrote in an email."But in doing so, he has elicited North Korean ire, and he has now seen the
reality of North Korea's game plan and intentions that many of us have been describing for some time," Revere added
"Welcome to our world, Mr
Secretary."Pompeo has come under increasing pressure to produce results, with Trump having touted the summit as a game-changing moment that
eliminated North Korea's nuclear threat
The State Department announced the formation of a small working group to work on details
Richardson counseled patience, endurance and restraint."The president needs to restrain himself from declaring 'Mission Accomplished' when
the mission hasn't really started," he said.Pompeo went to Pyongyang hoping to formalize details of what actions North Korea is committed to
taking to show its intention to denuclearize
Pyongyang has said it expects sanctions to be lifted in stages as it takes steps toward that goal, though Washington has insisted there will
be no sanctions relief until the process has been completed
But the "maximum pressure campaign" the administration adopted to squeeze the North Korean economy through sanctions has eased somewhat
already, particularly along the border with China.Expectations were buoyed in part by national security adviser John Bolton, who said last
week that North Korea could accomplish the "bulk" of its denuclearization within a year
Pompeo has been more circumspect, estimating that it will take until the end of Trump's first term in office, or two and a half years."The
expectation that Pompeo was going to come home with a dramatic deliverable was unrealistic to start," said Daryl Kimball, executive director
of the Arms Control Association."Yeah, technically, it could be done in a year if North Korea didn't have its own ideas about the pace and
what the United States needs to do to get there
What we're seeing is the reality of negotiations
It's not surprising to see the North Koreans push back in reminding the United States it has some steps to take in order to help build a
peace regime on the Korean Peninsula."Analysts say that any final accord between the two nations to eliminate Pyongyang's sophisticated
nuclear and missile arsenal will be a long slog with no guarantee of success."While we were hopeful there would be some sort of
breakthrough, it seems both sides can't even agree to what transpired after countless hours of talks - and that is a massive problem," said
Harry Kazianis, an Asia expert at the Center for the National Interest.Pompeo told reporters Saturday that the two countries would soon hold
working-level talks on the destruction of Pyongyang's testing facility for missile engines
He also said Pentagon officials will meet with their North Korean counterparts on or around July 12 at the demilitarized zone between the
Koreas to discuss the return of the remains of U.S
military personnel who died during the Korean War.Last month, Trump told a crowd of supporters that the remains of 200 service members had
"been sent back," but U.S
military officials later said that was not the case
officials viewed the handing over of remains as an easy confidence-building measure for North Korea to demonstrate its sincerity, and they
have been frustrated with the slowness of Pyongyang's follow-through.Ahead of the new round of talks, Kim Yong Chol, North Korea's
septuagenarian former spy chief, teased Pompeo, suggesting that the "serious" negotiations the night before may have caused Pompeo to lose
sleep."We did have very serious discussion on very important matters yesterday
So thinking about those discussions, you might have not slept well last night," Kim Yong Chol said."Director Kim, I slept just fine," Pompeo
responded, according to a pool report provided by reporters accompanying the secretary of state.Kim Yong Chol, a regime hard-liner who is
careful not to act outside Kim Jong Un's instructions, said he needed to "clarify" aspects of his nearly three-hour negotiations Friday with
Pompeo, a desire the top U.S
diplomat immediately echoed."There are things that I have to clarify as well," Pompeo said.The display of small talk between North Korean
officials, a rarity given the infrequent contacts between the longtime adversaries, revealed both the tension at the heart of the nuclear
negotiations and the increasing familiarity of the two men, who have become diplomatic counterparts during Pompeo's three visits to
Pyongyang and Kim Yong Chol's visit to the United States in May.State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo had been "very firm"
in seeking three basic goals from the visit: the complete denuclearization of North Korea, security assurances and the repatriation of
fallen soldiers' remains.Diplomats, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations, said the United States
continues to struggle to develop a shared understanding of what denuclearization means to North Korea
Maintaining even basic communications has been difficult.Adding to the pressure on Pompeo is a leaked U.S
intelligence assessment casting doubt on North Korea's willingness to relinquish its arsenal.Nauert said Pompeo called Trump on Saturday
morning to update him on the talks, a conversation that included Bolton and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.Analysts say there are
likely to be many more calls like this in the months and probably years to come."The North Korea threat still exists," Kimball said
"North Korea continues to improve its arsenal
This is just the beginning of a long process."(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is
published from a syndicated feed.)
