Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walks through the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday following his weekend talks in North Korea over denuclearization. PHOTO: ANDREW HARNIK, PRESS POOL
TOKYO—The path ahead for talks with North Korea appeared uncertain after a weekend visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ended with Pyongyang accusing the U.S. of “gangster-like tactics” and increasing the “risk of war,” but saying it retained confidence in President Donald Trump to reach an agreement on denuclearization.
Mr. Pompeo characterized the talks very differently, saying the two sides had “good-faith, productive conversations which will continue in the days and weeks ahead.” Speaking to reporters at a Sunday briefing in Tokyo, he added: “If requests were gangster-like, the world is a gangster.”
He said the talks had yielded progress on key matters such as a timeline for denuclearization and concrete steps that North Korea could take to show commitment to the process.
The divergent accounts demonstrated the difficulty in translating the broad goal of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula that resulted from June’s summit between Mr. Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un into specifics that would be acceptable to both sides. The Trump administration wants Mr. Kim to abandon his nuclear ambitions while Mr. Kim seeks relief from sanctions that have hammered his nation’s economy as well as a de-escalation of what he perceives as the threat to his regime by the U.S. military presence in South Korea.
Officials previously involved in talks with North Korea said the impasse was a familiar negotiating tactic and that Pyongyang was attempting to take control of the process. In this case, the reversal sent a clear message that North Korea wouldn’t act without significant concessions by the U.S.
“The pace of discussions and negotiations are being dictated by North Korea,” said Joseph Yun, a former U.S. special representative for North Korea policy at the State Department, who retired earlier this year.
It isn’t the first time North Korea has attacked the U.S. to gain leverage since entering into discussions with the Trump administration. Pyongyang issued a sharply worded statement ahead of planned U.S. military exercises with South Korea that briefly prompted Mr. Trump to withdraw from the summit in Singapore, which ultimately went ahead as planned.
But the unclear road ahead for talks effectively put the onus back on the White House to determine what happens next, including decisions such as whether to increase sanctions to force North Korea’s hand, persist with negotiations among working-level staffers from each side, or return to a more belligerent rhetoric that characterized the two nations’ relations last fall.
“I don’t think it’s the end,” Mr. Yun said. “That is determined by President Trump.”
The White House referred calls seeking comment to the State Department, which pointed to Mr. Pompeo’s statements.
Related issues on the table such as immediately repatriating the remains of U.S. soldiers killed during the Korean War in 1950-1953, destroying a North Korean weapons-producing facility and the speed of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula also became entangled in the dissonance after North Korea characterized the Pompeo meetings as “regrettable.”
“The U.S. side came up only with its unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization,” the statement said. “All of which run counter to the spirit of the Singapore summit meeting and talks.”
It added: “We maintain our trust in President Trump.”
Mr. Pompeo said ahead of the trip to North Korea that he aimed to fill in details of the nuclear deal signed in Singapore, such as a timeline and key steps, including when Pyongyang will provide a list of its nuclear assets and other weapons. After the meeting and Pyongyang’s statement, he signaled a hardening stance, saying the U.S. was “maintaining maximum” pressure on North Korea.
Mr. Trump stopped using the phrase “maximum pressure” last month to avoid provoking Mr. Kim and acknowledged that China wasn’t enforcing economic sanctions as strictly as before.
“Sanctions remain in place, and we will continue to enforce them with great vigor,” Mr. Pompeo told reporters on Sunday.
Pyongyang also played down Washington’s recent decision to cancel joint military exercises with South Korea. While the U.S. has advertised this as “a big concession,” it isn’t comparable to the irreversible nuclear plant dismantling carried out by North Korea, it said.
The South Korean presidential office maintained its positive outlook on North Korean denuclearization. A spokesman said Saturday he believed Messrs. Trump and Kim would iron out the multiple problems that are bound to arise during talks, using the trust they built at their summit last month.
“Chairman Kim and President Trump have demonstrated deep mutual trust recently. That was on display at their summit in Singapore,” he said.
“North Korea’s response is typical and doesn’t seem different from the past,” said Wi Sung-lac, former South Korean nuclear envoy. “It’s too early to say that it’s the beginning of the end of the current round of talks. But I think we have a rough road ahead.”
U.S. allies in the region fear that their interests may be sidelined in the U.S.-North Korea negotiations. After Pyongyang, Mr. Pompeo arrived in Tokyo on Saturday to discuss the results with South Korean and Japanese officials, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Both countries are U.S. allies with crucial interests in the outcome of the process.
While attention on North Korea’s nuclear program has largely focused on its pursuit of intercontinental ballistic missiles, Japan is within striking distance of the regime’s shorter-range weapons.
Mr. Abe has called for the international community to maintain a hard line on North Korea, although Japan has had a less visible role in the process than others in the region such as South Korea and China.
The weekend talks between Mr. Pompeo and General Kim Yong Chol, one of the North Korean leader’s top lieutenants, have been the highest-level engagement between the two countries since the Singapore summit June 12.
Doubt over North Korea’s commitment to its nuclear promise in Singapore was already emerging before the trip. Satellite imagery published in reports last week showed North Korea is rapidly expanding a weapons-manufacturing plant that produces solid-fuel missiles and has upgraded its main nuclear research facilities.
Pyongyang is also working on a submarine capable of launching a nuclear-armed ballistic missile, according to a senior South Korean lawmaker.
Mr. Pompeo said the satellite reports had been raised during his meetings in North Korea and that the two parties had discussed how to implement the agreement made at the Singapore summit.
“No one walked away from that; they’re still equally committed, Chairman Kim is still committed,” he said, hours before the North Korean statement.
The lengthy statement issued by Pyongyang on Saturday warned Washington against old methods that raise “cancerous” issues that “amplify distrust and risk of war.” Such an approach could shake North Korea’s “unwavering determination to denuclearize,” it said.
“This demonstrates the problem of meeting with Kim at the beginning, making a unilateral concession and declaring victory. It reduces U.S. leverage in the negotiation,” said Abraham Denmark, Asia director at Washington-based think tank the Wilson Center. “This is a rejection of U.S. demands for unilateral denuclearization by North Korea, and a clear message that the U.S. will need to give up more to make progress.”
Another potential stumbling block is the repatriation of U.S. soldiers killed during the Korean War.
Mr. Trump told a rally in Minnesota on June 21 that the transfer of more than 200 sets of remains had already taken place, as per the summit agreement. But weeks later, Defense Department officials were still waiting for the promised remains at the border with empty coffins and no explanation for the delay.
When asked about the remains on Saturday, Mr. Pompeo demurred on a timeline for the repatriation, saying the Defense Department would meet the North Koreans for a discussion about the process on July 12.
“The repatriation of remains will take place at the border and that process will begin to develop over the days that follow,” he said.
