The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s first official visit to China on Thursday will focus on ways to implement agreements inked during the historic Kim-Trump summit that took place on Tuesday in Singapore.
The discussions will also be conducted on addressing the ongoing China-US trade frictions, as per agencies.
The Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi invited Pompeo to China.
The two sides are set to exchange ideas on bilateral ties and major international and regional issues of mutual concern. The US side will brief China about the Kim-Trump summit, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said.
China, through the event, hopes that Beijing and Washington could enhance mutual understanding, seek ways to properly manage disputes, strengthen cooperation, and push bilateral ties forward.
Pompeo earlier in the day while in Seoul, said he was confident of the fact that North Korea knows there will be in-depth verification of the dismantling of its nuclear programme.
According to agencies, Pompeo said he was “confident they understand that there will be in-depth verification.”
Pompeo said during the summit, US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un forgot to include the two terms, verifiable and irreversible, which are the two conditions necessary for any deal.
“A lot has been made of the fact that the word ‘verifiable’ didn’t appear in the agreement. Let me assure you that ‘complete’ encompasses ‘verifiable’ in the minds of everyone concerned. One can’t completely denuclearise without validating, authenticating — you pick the word. The President is committed to that,” agencies quoted Pompeo as saying.
About Trump’s statement of cancelling of military exercises, Pompeo said the commitment is they will be suspended till there are “productive, good-faith negotiations” ongoing.
We will begin engagement with North Korea, sometime in the next week or so, he added.
On Tuesday, Trump and Kim signed a post-summit joint declaration, according to which Kim committed to ‘complete denuclearisation of Korean Peninsula’ and Trump pledged ‘security guarantees’ to the North.
