US and North Korea Work Out Details of Nuclear Deal

Following the Singapore Summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has had a couple of meetings in Pyongyang with his counterparts on the North Korean side to get into more detailed discussions about the promises made during the summit. Both sides have set up working groups to carry forward the processes that will lead to the total denuclearization that the US and many of its allies seek, promising great prosperity to Nort Korea in return for doing so. However, on this particular point, there seems to be some clarity yet to be achieved by both sides, as the world watches on with much anticipation.

Heather Nauert, a spokeswoman with Pompeo’s delegation to Pyongyang said that verification of efforts to denuclearize was also part of the ongoing process, speaking at the end of the second day of discussions during this current visit by the US Secretary of State. Among other points discussed, it was brought up that the remains of American soldiers who died during the Korean War in the 1950s would necessarily be repatriated to the United States. Still, there remains a strange aversion for the North Korean side to make any statements about the denuclearization process, as was evidenced by Pompeo’s meeting in New York, some time earlier, where a top North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, made no comments about the US call for “complete denuclearization,” stating only that there were things yet to be clarified about this.

The high-level meeting between Kim Jong-Un and President Donald Trump has been seen as progress in ties between the two nations, much to the interest of neighboring states of North Korea, namely South Korea and Japan, who see it as a positive step, if an overall end to the ongoing hostilities in the region can be averted as a result of this.