US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday brushed aside North Korea’s accusation of “gangster-like” denuclearization demands.
Pompeo maintained that his third visit to the country had produced results, but also vowed that sanctions would remain until Pyongyang follows through on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s pledge to get rid of his atomic weapons.
Pompeo downplayed a harshly critical North Korean statement after the talks in which the country’s foreign ministry bashed hopes for a quick deal and attacked the US for making unreasonable and extortionate demands aimed at forcing it to abandon nuclear weapons.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The statement was sure to fuel growing skepticism in the US and elsewhere over how serious Kim is about giving up his nuclear arsenal.
“If those requests were gangster-like, the world is a gangster,” Pompeo said, noting that numerous UN Security Council resolutions have demanded that the North rid itself of nuclear weapons and end its ballistic missile program. “People are going to make certain comments after meetings. If I paid attention to the press, I’d go nuts and I refuse to do that.”
Speaking after a meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Tokyo, Pompeo said his two days of talks in Pyongyang had been productive and conducted in good faith.
However, following the stinging commentary from the North, he allowed that the goal of denuclearization would be difficult and that much work remains.
“The road ahead will be difficult and challenging and we know critics will try to minimize the work that we have achieved,” he said.
His two days of talks with senior North Korean officials had “made progress,” and included a “detailed and substantive discussion about the next steps towards a fully verified and complete denuclearization, he said.
He said North Korea understood that denuclearization must be “fully verified” and “final.”
South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha said that the North had balked at a written pledge for “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization” for historical reasons, but stressed that the goal remained the same whether or not that exact phrase was used.
Fully verified, final denuclearization “isn’t any softer in stating our shared goal of complete denuclearization,” she said.
After wrapping up his talks in Tokyo, Pompeo yesterday left for Vietnam, where he met with Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in Hanoi.
Pompeo’s five-nation trip will also take him to Abu Dhabi and Brussels.
Additional reporting by staff writer
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique