Reports: Pompeo Faced Strict Security Measures When Meeting Kim

Local Editor

Shortly before last week's talks between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, a senior North Korean official told the Pompeo that his preferred translator would not be allowed in the meeting and that his bodyguard would have to leave his weapon behind, according to a source cited by Bloomberg.

In response, Pompeo tried to shrug off the restrictions on the bodyguard, jokingly describing him as a "big guy." He was quoted by the source as saying that "we will make, we will figure it out and make it work."

Reflecting on this "brief-but-tense scene", Bloomberg underscored that it indicated "just how hard the [US] Secretary of State must fight for even the smallest concession from Kim's regime as he seeks to secure a deal for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons for good."

High on the agenda for the talks was the path toward North Korea's denuclearization and Kim's possible second summit with US President Donald Trump.

In this respect, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim as saying that the negotiations were "productive and wonderful," and that he expected significant results at his possible second meeting with Trump.

"There was an exchange of opinions of the top leadership of the two countries on the issues arising in holding the second DPRK-US summit talks, followed by an in-depth discussion of them," KCNA reported.

Pompeo, for his part, praised progress on clinching an agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, saying that the two sides are continuing to work on the agreements reached during bilateral high-level talks at the Singapore summit.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team