North Korea says high-level talks with US delegation ‘gangster-like’

[Ulquiorra]

NORTH Korea says high-level talks with a US delegation led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were “regrettable” and accused Washington of a “unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearisation”.

The statement by an unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman on Saturday came hours after Mr Pompeo concluded two days of talks with North Korean officials led by Kim Yong-chol.

The statement says that the United States betrayed the spirit of last month’s summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by making unilateral demands on “CVID,” or the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea.

It says the outcome of the follow-up talks was “very concerning” because it has led to a “dangerous phase that might rattle our willingness for denuclearisation that had been firm.”

Mr Pompeo has wrapped up two days of talks with senior North Korean officials without meeting Kim Jong-un but with commitments for new discussions on denuclearisation and the repatriation of the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War.

Before departing Pyongyang on Saturday, Mr Pompeo told reporters that his conversations with senior North Korean official Kim Yong-chol had been “productive,” conducted “in good faith” and that “a great deal of progress” had been made in some areas.

But he stressed that “there’s still more work to be done” in other areas, much of which would be done by working groups that the two sides have set up to deal with specific issues.

Mr Pompeo said that a Pentagon team would be meeting with North Korean officials on or about July 12 at the border between North and South Korea to discuss the repatriation of remains and that working level talks would be held soon on the destruction of North Korea’s missile engine testing facility.

North Korea’s state media have reported the visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a day after he arrived in Pyongyang but did not describe the nature of his talks with North Korean officials over the future of the country’s nuclear weapons program.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Saturday the US delegation led by Mr Pompeo will take part in high-level talks for carrying out agreements between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un following their summit last month in Singapore.

The agency provided no further details.

Mr Pompeo met for nearly three hours on Friday with a senior North Korean official in Pyongyang to nail down specifics of commitments on denuclearisation made at Mr Trump’s summit with Kim.