US’ N Korea envoy to not get face time with counterparts

Bloomberg

More than three months after Secretary of State Michael Pompeo picked Stephen Biegun to lead negotiations with North Korea, the former Ford Motor Co. executive has barely met officials from Pyongyang face-to-face.
The standstill is a sign of how negotiations between the US and North Korea have faltered, forcing a lowering of expectations, since President Donald Trump met with Kim Jong-un in Singapore in June. Biegun was appointed in August to help follow up on the opening created by the summit, but North Korean officials have ignored Pompeo’s invitation in September to meet with Biegun “at the earliest opportunity.”
Kim’s regime may feel emboldened to spurn the usual channels of diplomacy because Trump has emphasized his personal rapport with the autocratic leader and his interest in holding a second summit soon, according to current and former administration officials.
“The North Koreans are digging in — they just want to deal with Trump,” said Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst who’s now at the Center for International and Strategic Studies in Washington. “Are we closer to some sort of agreement? I don’t think so — people that I talk to say that we’re just genuinely stuck.”
Publicly, Pompeo has remained optimistic and positive about the pace towards eventual success in North Korea. Progress “has been good” and substantive talks continue, he told CNN during the Group of 20 summit in Argentina.
Privately, however, the secretary is more downbeat. Two people familiar with his thinking, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations, said Pompeo is growing exasperated that there’s been no progress on the points spelled out at the Singapore summit.
That’s forced the secretary to scale back his expectations for when the North Korea issue could be resolved, the people said. In June, Pompeo said the bulk of denuclearisation could be completed by the end of Trump’s first term. Now he — and the president — say they won’t be forced into “artificial time frames.”
“We always knew this would be a long road,” State Department Deputy Spokesman Robert Palladino said. “Secretary Pompeo entered into
negotiations knowing that this would not happen overnight, but no one should question our commitment to fulfilling the Singapore agreement.”
The State Department declined to make Biegun available for an interview.
While there are few public signs of progress — amid reports that North Korea continues to strengthen and expand its nuclear capabilities while stopping short of missile launches and bomb tests — some analysts say there may be more going on behind the scenes. They point to recent South Korean media reports that Andy Kim, the Central Intelligence Agency’s top Korea officer, met with North Korean officials in the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas.
A CIA spokeswoman declined to comment on Kim’s travel or confirm whether he met with North Korean officials.
Kim, who has announced plans to retire, was a key interlocutor with North Korean officials when Pompeo visited the country as CIA director and, later, as secretary of state.
Mike Pompeo met South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha.