WASHINGTON – Sec. Pompeo testifies before Senate Foreign Relations Committee on FY 2019 State Department budget request.
You can watch it live at 10 a.m. EST right here on ClickOnDetroit.
Pompeo: Fate of US-NKorea summit rests with Kim Jong Un
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday he’s “very hopeful” that a planned U.S.-North Korean summit will proceed but laid the fate of the historic meeting squarely with Kim Jong Un, who won’t be reassured by U.S. demands for “rapid denuclearization.”
The decision about whether the June 12 meeting in Singapore between Kim and President Donald Trump happens is “ultimately up to Chairman Kim,” Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Lawmakers’ questioning of Pompeo followed Trump’s comment Tuesday that “there’s a very substantial chance” the meeting would not proceed as scheduled.
Trump told reporters Wednesday, “Whatever it is, we will know next week about Singapore and if we go I think it will be a great thing for North Korea.”
On Thursday, though, a top North Korean official said recent comments by Vice President Mike Pence were “stupid” and “ignorant” and warned the country is willing to pull out of the summit. Pence told Fox News on Monday that North Korea could end up like Libya if Kim failed to make a deal.
“Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States,” said Choe Son Hui, vice minister of foreign affairs.