‘Big guy’ Pompeo faced a hard bargain in latest Pyongyang visit with North Korea calling the shots

From the moment Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Pyongyang on Sunday, North Korean officials made clear who was in control and how little space the top US diplomat would have setting the terms of the discussion that would follow.

Pompeo was greeted on the airport tarmac by senior official Kim Yong-chol, who told him that only three people could join him in the meeting that he had come for with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Kim Yong-chol also made clear that Pompeo’s preferred translator wouldn’t be allowed, and his bodyguard would have to leave his weapon behind, according to a pool reporter travelling with Pompeo.

“We will make – we will figure it out and make it work,” Pompeo told his greeter. He tried to shrug off the restrictions on his bodyguard, calling him a “big guy” and laughing.

The brief but tense scene at the start of a day-long visit to Pyongyang showed just how hard the 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. Pompeo said there was agreement that Kim and President Donald Trump would hold their second summit as soon as possible, but plans for a sequel to their June meeting in Singapore already were in the works.

At least, a US official travelling with Pompeo said, the visit to North Korea went better than Pompeo’s previous trip, which ended with a North Korean statement accusing him of making “gangster-like” demands.