US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says North Korea denuclearisation to be completed by early 2021
The top US diplomat said he had invited his North Korean counterpart to meet next week in New York City
North Korea has committed to dismantling its nuclear weapons programme by the time US President Donald Trump’s term ends in January 2021, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.
Building on what Trump called “tremendous progress”, Pompeo said he has invited his North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong-ho, to meet next week in New York, “where we are both already scheduled to be in attendance at the United Nations General Assembly meeting”.
Pompeo is also scheduled to lead a UN ministerial meeting on North Korea on September 27.
He said in a congratulatory statement on the “successful outcome” of a third inter-Korean summit concluded in Pyongyang overnight that “the United State is prepared to engage immediately in negotiations to transform US-DPRK relations”.
“We have invited North Korean representatives to meet our special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, in Vienna, Austria, at the earliest opportunity,” Pompeo said in a written statement.