Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that his meeting with North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un showed him that there is an opportunity for a denuclearization deal.
Pompeo said previous negotiations with North Korea have failed because the regime has not followed through on the promises they made. Expressing optimism for a prospective deal negotiated by President Donald Trump, Pompeo attested to his belief that it could be different this time now that Kim has signaled willingness to end his nuclear weapons program.
"Repeatedly, they have taken actions only to find that those promises proved false or unworthy, or that they were incapable of achieving them," Pompeo said. "My goal was to try to identify if this was a real opportunity there. I believe there is. Who knows how the ultimate discussions will go—there's a lot of work left to do—but I'm very hopeful that the conditions set by president Trump give us this chance."
Pompeo met with Kim earlier this month when he was still CIA director.
ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked about Trump’s comment that Pompeo has a good relationship with Kim, and the secretary of state said he had a productive conversation with Kim, who was well-prepared.
"We had a good conversation. We talked about serious matters. He was very well-prepared. I hope I matched that," Pompeo said. "We had an extensive conversation on the hardest issues that face our two countries."
"I had a clear mission statement from President Trump," Pompeo added. "Kim Jong Un understood the mission exactly as i have described it today. He agreed that he was prepared to talk about that and to lay out map that would help us achieve that objective. Only time will tell if we can get that done."
The summit between the two leaders is expected to take place sometime in the next two months.
