MIKE POMPEO EXPLAINS WHY US HAS TO SUSPEND MILITARY DRILLS WITH SOUTH KOREA

SEOUL, South Korea – Secretary of State, Mr. Mike Pompeo has explained when the United States has to suspend joint military drills with South Korea in the Korean Peninsula. Pompeo who was speaking at a press conference in Seoul ahead of the meeting with South Korea and Japan on Thursday.

Aluding to the meeting between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un in Singapore, Mike Pompeo said President Trump made it very clear that the condition precedent for the exercises not to proceed was a productive, good-faith negotiations being ongoing.

” So I’m not going to talk to internal processes and discussions that were had. But it – the President was very clear. I was present when the discussion took place. He made it very clear that the condition precedent for the exercises not to proceed was a productive, good-faith negotiations being ongoing. And at the point it’s concluded that they are not, the President’s commitment to not have those joint exercises take place will no longer be in effect. I mean, he was unambiguous about that and how he communicated it both I think at the press conference but certainly when he was with Chairman Kim as well”, he said.

According to him, it is very clear that the President is in the lead, adding that he as Secretary of State takes the role of driving this process forward.

“I don’t know exactly what the timing will be for our next conversation with North Korea. I would anticipate it will be fairly quickly after we return to our home countries. I don’t know exactly what form that will take, but I’m very confident that by some time in the next week or so we will begin the engagement.

“There was a great deal of work done over days and days and days in Panmunjom that led to the discussions that took place there in Singapore for whatever it was, 70 hours or 60 hours, whatever the two sets of teams were on the ground. So there’s – not all of that work appeared in the final document, but lots of other places where there were understandings reached. We couldn’t reduce them to writing, so that means there’s still some work to do, but there was a great deal of work done that is beyond what was seen in the final document that will be the place that we’ll begin when we return to our conversations.

“I think the President was very clear. His intention here was to put us in a place where we get the opportunity to have productive conversations connected to the denuclearization of North Korea. Our mission hasn’t changed, right. A lot has been made of the fact that the word “verifiable” didn’t appear in the agreement. Let me assure you that the “complete” encompasses verifiable in the minds of everyone concerned. One can’t completely denuclearize without validating, authenticating – you pick the word.

“The President’s committed to that. He believes that having made this commitment to Chairman Kim, that so long as we were making progress and having good-faith, productive conversations that we were setting the right conditions for moving forward with those talks. I think that’s what the President was thinking of when he made that commitment to him”, he said.

“They’re – the modalities are beginning to develop. There’ll be a great deal of work to do. It’s – there’s a long way to go, there’s much to think about, but don’t say silly things. No, don’t, don’t. It’s not productive. It’s not productive to do that, to say silly things. It’s just – it’s unhelpful.

“Well, I’m not concerned about what was communicated to the North Koreans and what I understand them to believe given the conversations – multiple conversations, not just the time with President Trump but certainly that time with President Trump. But I had had two conversations with Chairman Kim before that as well, I’ve spent even more hours with that – with Kim Yong-chol. I am confident that they understand what we’re prepared to do, a handful of things we’re likely not prepared to do. And you began your question with the same question that was asked earlier. I am equally confident they understand that there will be in-depth verification.

“I can only answer that we do have a reasonably good understanding of what took place there and – but I don’t want to get into the intelligence assessment. We’ve spent – I don’t want to over – a reasonable amount of time developing our understanding of what took place there. It’s always the case that our strong preference would be to have experts on the ground when these types of things take place; we gain a much more thorough understanding of what actually occurred and what may not have.

“With respect to timelines, I don’t want to get into that. There is a public timeline that’s been – been out there, right – the North Koreans and the South Koreans have spoken of timeframes. The President has said, and it’s common knowledge, the work itself takes some amount of time. We have big teams ready to go. We’ve been working on it for months to have all of the relevant parties from our labs, smartest folks – by the way, not just Americans, but partners around the world. We’re prepared to execute this once we’re in position that we can actually get to a place where we can do it. So I’m confident that the long pole in the tent will be our capacity to negotiate to that place, but I’m hopeful we can move that forward fairly quickly as well”, he said.