Pompeo believes Kim is "ready" to achieve denuclearization

[Juppitèr]

Washington, Apr 29 (EFE) .- The new US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said today that he had a "good conversation" with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, when he met with him in North Korea and had the impression that he is "prepared" to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

In his first interview as Secretary of State, on ABC, Pompeo reviewed his trip to Easter in North Korea and his meeting with Kim.

"We had a good conversation, he was very prepared and I hope that I would match that, we had an extensive conversation about some of the most difficult issues facing our countries," explained Pompeo, who when he traveled to North Korea was still the director of the CIA.

"I had a clear mission assigned by President (Donald) Trump When I left, Kim Jong-un understood that mission exactly as I am describing it today He agreed that he was prepared to design a plan that would help us achieve denuclearization, "said Pompeo.

"Only time," he continued, "will tell us if we can get it."

During his meeting in North Korea, Pompeo tried to prepare the future summit between Trump and Kim, the first meeting in history between the United States and North Korea.

"My objective was to try to identify if there was a real opportunity there, I think there is, and who knows how the talks will go? There is a lot of work to be done, but I hope that the conditions that President Trump has established will give us a opportunity, "said Pompeo.

At a rally in Michigan, Trump announced yesterday that his meeting with the North Korean leader will take place in "the next three or four weeks", which is a slight advance with respect to the White House estimates, which set the appointment for final May or early June.

Trump also said this week that his government is evaluating "two or three" places for his meeting with Kim. According to the CBS network, these two places are Mongolia and Singapore.

In the interview, Pompeo reiterated that the goal of his Government is to achieve a "complete, verifiable and irreversible" denuclearization with North Korea.

"We use the word irreversible with intent, we will demand that it be demonstrated that denuclearization will be achieved, we are not going to make promises, we are not going to just take the words, we are going to look for actions and facts," said Pompeo.

"This government," he said, "will keep our eyes open, we know the history, we know the risks, it's going to be very different, we're going to negotiate in a different way than we did before."

No US president has so far agreed to meet with a leader of North Korea, although others before Trump tried to establish a dialogue process.

The highest-level attempt was made under the presidency of Bill Clinton (1993-2001), who spent years working on an agreement to contain the North Korean nuclear program and even sent Pyongyang to its Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, in October. of 2000, where he held a meeting with Kim Jong-il, the father of the current leader.

The process failed because, despite Clinton's attempts, Pyongyang went ahead with its nuclear program by enriching uranium.