Kim exit wouldn't transformation US goals: Pompeo
24 April, 2020
The United States could keep seeking North Korea's denuclearization no matter who is in control in Pyongyang, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday, amid speculation about leader Kim Jong Un's health.
US officials including President Donald Trump contain declined to go over Kim's condition after a written report, downplayed by South Korea, that the reclusive authoritarian was ailing.
But asked in an interview, Pompeo said he had met Kim's powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, whose latest elevation in the hierarchy raised pundits' view that she is actually a successor.
"I did have an opportunity to meet her once or twice, but the challenge remains to be the same -- the target remains unchanged -- whoever is leading North Korea," Pompeo told Fox News.
He renewed the united states promise to provide the North Korean persons "a brighter foreseeable future" if the leadership gives up nuclear weapons.
"They've got to denuclearize. We have to do hence in a manner that we can verify. That is true no matter who's leading North Korea," he explained.
Pompeo flew to North Korea four circumstances in 2018 seeing as he arranged historic summits between Trump and Kim after more than a half century of enmity between your two countries.
But expectations for a breakthrough before All of us elections in November have dimmed, with North Korea firing off rockets and america refusing Pyongyang's needs for sanctions relief before full denuclearization.
Daily NK, an online media outlet run mainly by North Korean defectors, said Kim had undergone a cardiovascular procedure before this month triggered by heavy smoking, obesity and fatigue.
CNN also quoted a good US official as saying Kim was found in "grave danger" after surgery.
But South Korea, which is technically even now at battle with the North, said it had detected no unusual activities in its neighbor.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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