Trump to meet Kim at Asia summit, Pompeo says

Washington — US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday he is dispatching a team to make preparations for the next summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to be held somewhere in Asia late in February.

In an interview with Fox News, Pompeo said the North Koreans  have agreed the second summit between the two leaders  will be held at the end of February.

“We’ll do it someplace in Asia,” he said. “I am dispatching a team there. They’re headed that way now to lay the foundations for what I hope will be a substantial additional step towards the path for not only denuclearisation of the peninsula but a brighter future for the North Korean people,” Pompeo said.

Pompeo did not name the summit venue. Vietnam said last week it  has not been informed about any time or venue for a possible Trump-Kim summit, but that it  is confident in its ability to host such a meeting.

Officials and diplomats said two weeks ago that Vietnam  is keen to host the summit and two sources told Reuters that Hanoi  is preparing to receive Kim on a state visit.

Singapore, where Trump and Kim met in June 2018, and Bangkok have also been talked about as possibilities for a summit.

Last June’s summit — the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader — produced a vague commitment by Kim to work towards the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, but he has yet to take what Washington sees as concrete steps in that direction.

South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency cited a South Korean foreign ministry official as saying the two sides  will focus on how the US might respond if the North dismantled its Yongbyon nuclear complex, in preparatory talks for a second summit.

During an inter-Korean summit in September, Kim expressed willingness to close Yongbyon if the US takes corresponding action.

Yonhap said the preparatory talks could begin next week.

Possible US reciprocal steps could include talks to clinch a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, the official was quoted as saying.

The war ended with an armistice and North Korea has long sought a formal treaty.

But the South Korean official ruled out the possibility of easing sanctions on North Korea or a resumption of economic projects between the two Koreas.

Last week, South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos that North Korea could show its commitment to denuclearisation by shutting its Yongbyon complex and allowing international inspections to confirm that.

Reuters