Mike Pompeo, CIA Director and future Secretary of State, has had a secret meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. News of the meeting first came from The Washington Post, stating that the officials had met over Easter weekend. While President Donald Trump has confirmed the meeting, he stated that the two formed a “good relationship” just last week.
Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018
Trump’s had some foreign relations meetings as well. He’s currently hosting Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. This is the second time Trump has invited Abe, and the two seem to have a cordial relationship.
According to BBC News, Trump said the countries were “very unified on the subject of North Korea.” This may curb fears from Tokyo that Trump’s decision to talk with both countries could edge out Japan; however, it is rumored that Abe’s goal for the trip is to persuade Trump to remain strong against Pyongyang, not letting the city and its country get away with its “well-documented human rights abuses and pursuit of nuclear weapons,” both of which go against international laws and UN sanctions. There is reason to believe their missiles could reach the US.
North Korea has been isolated for quite some time after these offenses, but the recent Winter Olympics in South Korea have opened relations and increased diplomacy. Many from China, South Korea, and recently the US have gone to visit the North.
Pompeo’s recent discussion with Kim “marks the highest-level contact between the two countries since 2000, when then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with Kim Jong Il, the current leader’s late father, to discuss strategic issues,” claimed The Washington Post.
The only other high-level contact was nearly five years ago, when James R. Clapper Jr., Director of National Intelligence at the time, went to North Korea to release two American captives. Even then, he met with a lower-level official.
Trump now plans to meet Kim in early June and is considering five demilitarized sites for the meeting. This would be the first direct conference between a US and North Korean leader in history.
Trump has had much to say about Kim in the past, and most of it hasn’t been friendly. He’s threatened to take nuclear action against North Korea, responding to Pyongang missiles with “fire and fury.”
North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018
Yet Trump signaled a brighter future for the relationship between the US and North Korea, perhaps even a reconciliation.
“I really believe there’s a lot of good will. They do respect us. We are respectful of them,” Trump said in a news conference. “Subject to a deal, they have my blessing.”