North Korea’s Pompeo problem exposes rift on denuclearisation talks

Bloomberg

North Korea appears to have a Pompeo problem.
The widening gulf between Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s description of nuclear talks with North Korea and Pyongyang’s criticism of his efforts is adding further confusion to the status of negotiations intended to achieve the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.”
North Korean officials and state media have in recent weeks repeatedly rebutted the top US diplomat’s characterisation of events and suggested the administration has a myopic focus on denuclearisation while ignoring issues, such as bringing about a final resolution of the Korean War. Even as President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim
Jong-un exchange optimistic messages about their push for peace, Pompeo has increasingly become a target of public disparagement from Pyongyang.
The latest broadside came after Pompeo said he had a “quick, polite exchange” with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings last week in Singapore. Pompeo brought Ri a letter from Trump to Kim during the chat and said later that he’s “optimistic that we will get this done.”
But he also pressed other nations to maintain a sanctions regime that has already shown signs of weakening.

‘Gangster-Like Logic’
The North Korean response? Pompeo’s State Department is obsessed by “outdated gangster-like logic” and a “monarchical way of thinking” in what has amounted to “an unprecedented tragicomedy.” Ri, speaking after Pompeo left the Asean meeting, cited Pompeo’s “unilateral demands” and said “impatience is not helpful at all for building confidence.”
The official mouthpiece of Kim’s Workers’ Party, the Rodong Sinmun, published an editorial Monday titled: “US Will Get Nothing With Its ‘Pressure Diplomacy.”’
“Everything in the future will be decided depending on how much the US will attach importance to the trust and respect, escaping from the old view on ‘sanctions and pressure,”’ the paper said, in an editorial also published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
That echoed the rhetorical gap that emerged after Pompeo’s trip to Pyongyang last month. The secretary of state described that visit as “productive” and undertaken “in good faith.” North Korea called the US strategy “cancerous” and the secretary of state’s demands as “gangster-like.”
North Korea has a long history of over-the-top condemnations of the US, and Trump last year responded in kind with his warning of “fire and fury.” But Trump’s first-of-its-kind summit with Kim on June 12 in Singapore fostered expectations the two sides could achieve a breakthrough.