Pompeo Sees More North Korea Talks

By Staff, Agencies

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday he was hopeful the United States would send a delegation to North Korea in the coming weeks, after a summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended with no deal.

The Trump-Kim second summit last week in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi failed to produce any agreement or immediate plan for follow-up negotiations.

"I am hopeful, although I have no commitment yet, that we will be back at it, that I'll have a team in Pyongyang in the next couple weeks," Pompeo told the Iowa Farm Bureau.

"I'm continuing to work to find those places where there's a shared interest," he added.

The two sides gave different reasons for the abrupt end to the talks about denuclearization on the Korean peninsula.

Trump said on Thursday that North Korea wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, while North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho said they had only demanded a partial easing in exchange for dismantling its main nuclear site at Yongbyon.

However, the two sides left room for further discussions, with Trump highlighting the economic benefits for Pyongyang if it gave up its nuclear weapons.