Real opportunity...

Pompeo sees ‘real opportunity’ to denuclearize North Korea

By DAVID BEAVERS

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a month ago, says he saw a “real opportunity” to negotiate an end to the regime’s nuclear weapons program.

In an interview with Jonathan Karl aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Pompeo said the “goal” of his meeting with Kim “was to try and identify if there was a real opportunity there. I believe there is.”

“Who knows how the ultimate discussions will go,” Pompeo added. “There is a lot of work to do, but I am very hopeful that the conditions that have been set by President Trump give us this chance.”

Later, in an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” White House national security adviser John Bolton reiterated the Trump administration's call for skepticism about Kim’s rhetoric.

“There’s no one in the Trump administration starry-eyed about what’s going to happen here,” Bolton said.

Pressed by Fox host Chris Wallace, Bolton added, “We’ve heard similar things from North Korea before. That’s why I think that while we should be optimistic in pursuing the opportunity, we should be skeptical of rhetoric until we see some concrete evidence.”

Pompeo’s interview — his first since he was sworn in Thursday as the new secretary of state — follows a historic Friday meeting between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the first time a North Korean leader has crossed the border into South Korea since the Korean War halted in 1953. President Donald Trump is expected to meet with Kim within the next month or so to press negotiations to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

On Sunday, Pompeo, who met with Kim as CIA director, credited Trump’s pressure campaign for bringing the North Korean leader to the bargaining table.

“We have built a coalition — a diplomatic coalition has come together to put pressure on Kim Jong Un. President Trump and that pressure campaign are the reasons Kim Jong Un wants this meeting,” Pompeo said.

Asked by Karl whether anything the North Korean leader says could be trusted, Pompeo said the administration is “not going to take words.”

“We’re going to look for actions and deeds,” the secretary of state said. “And until such time, the president has made it incredibly clear we will keep the pressure campaign in place until we achieve that.”

Pressed further by Karl, Pompeo said “this administration has its eyes wide open.”

“We know the history. We know the risks,” Pompeo said. “We’re going to be very different. We’re going to negotiate in a different way than has been done before. We’re going to require those steps — we use the word irreversible with great intention. We’re going to require those steps that demonstrate that denuclearization is going to be achieved."

“We’re not going to make promises. We’re not going to take words,” he added. “We’re going to look for actions and deeds.”