Pompeo Talks with North Koreans Postponed

Pompeo had been due to hold talks with senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, hoping to pave the way for a second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and make progress on denuclearization.

The meeting would be rescheduled "when our respective schedules permit," the US State Department said Wednesday.

"Ongoing conversations continue to take place," it said in a statement without elaborating, Reuters reported.

"The United States remains focused on fulfilling the commitments agreed to by President Trump and Chairman Kim at the Singapore summit in June."

Kim and Trump pledged to work towards denuclearization at the June meeting, but the agreement was short on specifics. Negotiations have made little headway since, with the North falling short of US demands for irreversible moves to abandon a weapons program that potentially threatens the United States.

"We don't believe that the delay means the North Korea-US summit won't happen or momentum for the summit has been lost," said South Korea's presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.

A senior South Korean foreign ministry official said that although the rescheduling was regrettable, there was no need to "overthink the postponement."

"I think we have to look at it as a part of the process of reaching complete denuclearization and setting up a peace regime," the unnamed official told reporters.

Trump's Republican party lost control of the US House of Representatives Tuesday after the Democrats rode a wave of dissatisfaction with his presidency at US mid-term elections.

While Republicans maintained control of the Senate, the Democrats now have the opportunity to block Trump's agenda and open his administration to intense scrutiny.

Some analysts suggest a domestically weakened Trump may impact his foreign policy and test his North Korean diplomatic gambit.

Democrats say they are determined to obtain more information about meetings between Trump and Pompeo and Kim, worried that Trump is so eager to make a "great deal" that he will give Kim too much with little in return.

North Korea has for years pursued nuclear and missile programs in defiance of UN Security Council and US resolutions but the bellicose rhetoric from both the North and Trump has eased this year.

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