Experts Skeptical: Pompeo Hails 'Significant' North Korea Progress

[rainman + 87]

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday hailed “significant progress” in talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the weekend and said the sides were “pretty close” to agreeing details for a second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump. However, experts questioned what Pompeo had achieved on Sunday on his fourth visit to Pyongyang this year. They said the North Korean leader appeared simply to be repackaging and dragging out past pledges. Pompeo told reporters Kim had said he was ready to allow international inspectors into North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear testing site and the Sohae missile engine test facility as soon as the two sides agreed on logistics. However, Pompeo declined to say whether there had been any movement on North Korea allowing inspectors to visit its Yongbyon site, which produces fuel for nuclear weapons, as the United States has sought. North Korea has said it could permanently close Yongbyon if Washington took “corresponding measures,” of which there has so far been no sign.

[Pavel + 116]

Translation: Nothing has changed.

[Petar + 73]

A piece of paper and a handshake. Until now, North Korea has done absolutely nothing to stop their nuclear program. Nothing

[damirUSBiH + 152]

Just now, Petar said:

A piece of paper and a handshake. Until now, North Korea has done absolutely nothing to stop their nuclear program. Nothing

Right. And the last time they did a nuclear test was when?

[ThunderBlade + 77]

Many thought it was not possible, but It's encouraging to see North Korea willing to talk and come to some kind of agreement

[jpZelabal + 63]

Ending the Korean War and making the World safe from nuclear holocaust - got my vote

[50 shades of black + 58]

We all want the same thing - to live in peace. And, after each meeting between US / NK chances for it are bigger.

[Dan Warnick + 1,146]

3 hours ago, damirUSBiH said:

Right. And the last time they did a nuclear test was when?

I want to chime in on this but there was significant evidence some 2-3 months back, before President Trump's meeting with Kim in Singapore, that their main underground bomb testing facilities had collapsed into itself due to years of use and the degradation from the same.  Easy to give up what is no longer there.  Still, we're talking AND so are the North and South sides of the border.  A LOT of progress is being made between those two parties every single day now.  That is very encouraging indeed.  IMHO all the Trump administration has to do is keep the pressure up to get long term denuclearization of the peninsula agreed to in writing and get UN forces into there for verifications.  This is good stuff, no matter who is responsible, but the fact is it happened by and large because of threats that Kim and Xi understood and Trump's willingness to give them a significant amount of "face" by meeting with Kim personally.  Guanxi, the Chinese might call it.  Good for Trump, and especially good for the North Korean people.