Kim Jong Un Visits Potato Farm as Mike Pompeo's North Korea Meeting Flounders, Reports Say
Mike Pompeo's follow-up meeting with the leadership of North Korea was expected to build on the gains both sides have established during the historic June 12 summit in Singapore between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.
Instead, the meeting between Pompeo and top North Korean officials ended in an awkward stalemate, according to reports. Kim Jong Un was not present during the overnight visit, and no progress on denuclearization talks was established, according to sources via CNN.
"The North Koreans were just messing around, not serious about moving forward," the insider, who is said to have close knowledge of the discussions, described the meeting. Instead of continuing from the points made during the Singapore summit, the meeting is now seen to have gone "as badly as it could have."
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For now, Pompeo would only comment that the meeting was "productive." the U.S. Secretary of State was promised a personal meeting with Kim, but during his stay in North Korea, he only met with Foreign Minister Kim Yong-chol.
While Pompeo would generously describe the talks with the country's top officials to have been made "in good faith," an unidentified foreign ministry official for North Korea described Pompeo's approach as "gangster-like," according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via the Independent.
As for Kim Jong Un, the leader was apparently out of town, as his top deputy told Pompeo's delegation during his three-day visit.
It turns out that Kim has visited a farm community near the Chinese border to see the potato farms, according to the New York Magazine. The state-run news outlet, KCNA, would go on to report in abundant detail Kim's visit to Samjiyon country, on the same day that Pompeo was supposed to have a face-to-face meeting with him.
Instead of discussing denuclearization with the U.S. Secretary of State, Kim was reportedly "Looking round farm machines and tractors of the workteam, he acquainted himself with how many tractors it has and how it operates them," according to news updates by KCNA.
