North to allow nuke checks
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was ready to allow international inspectors into the North's nuclear and missile testing sites, one of the main sticking points over an earlier denuclearisation pledge.
Pompeo, who met Kim during a short trip to Pyongyang on Sunday, said the inspectors would visit a missile engine test facility and the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site as soon as the two sides agree on logistics.
"There's a lot of logistics that will be required to execute that," Pompeo told a news briefing in Seoul before leaving for Beijing.
The top US diplomat also said both sides were "pretty close" to agreement on the details of a second summit, which Kim proposed to US President Donald Trump in a letter last month.
Trump and Kim held an historic first summit in Singapore in June.
"Most importantly, both the leaders believe there's real progress that can be made, substantive progress that can be made at the next summit," Pompeo said.
Stephen Biegun, new US nuclear envoy who was accompanying the secretary, said he offered on Sunday to meet his counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, "as soon as possible" and they were in discussion over specific dates and location.
Pompeo's trip to Pyongyang, his fourth this year, followed a stalemate as North Korea resisted Washington's demands for irreversible steps to give up its nuclear arsenal, including a complete inventory of its weapons and facilities.
Meanwhile, Pompeo and Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi aired their grievances in the open yesterday during a brief visit to Beijing by Washington's top diplomat, amid worsening relations.
While the exchange included typical diplomatic pleasantries, and the two officials emphasised the need for cooperation, their remarks before journalists at the start of their meeting at Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guest House were unusually pointed.
"Recently, as the US side has been constantly escalating trade friction toward China, it has also adopted a series of actions on the Taiwan issue that harm China's rights and interests, and has made groundless criticism of China's domestic and foreign policies," Wang said at a joint appearance with Pompeo.
"We believe this has been a direct attack on our mutual trust, and has cast a shadow on China-US relations," he added. "We demand that the US side stop this kind of mistaken action."
Wang also urged the United States to stop selling arms to Taiwan and to cut off official visits and military ties with the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement.
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