US State Secretary Mike Pompeo said that senior officials from the United States and North Korea held constructive talks in Singapore ahead of the historic meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“Substantive and detailed meetings in #Singapore today as Ambassador Kim meets with #DPRK,” Pompeo wrote in a Twitter post in which he included a photograph of the meeting between US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, North Korean Foreign Ministry senior official Choi Sun Hee and other delegates from both countries.
The two sides met to narrow differences ahead of Tuesday’s summit between Trump and Kim, at which the two leaders will discuss efforts to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
On Tuesday, June 12, the first-ever meeting of sitting leaders of the United States and North Korea will take place in Singapore. Last week, Trump expressed his hope for the normalization of relations with Pyongyang following the summit and did not rule out the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries. At the same time, Trump stressed that Washington would not accept Pyongyang’s refusal to denuclearize.
Earlier in June, media reported that Pyongyang, during summit preparations, had demanded that the United States lift the sanctions against North Korea and establish diplomatic relations with the country.
Source: Agencies
