CIA Director Mike Pompeo had an unlikely destination for Easter weekend: Pyongyang. Pompeo reportedly made a top secret trip to North Korea that weekend to meet with Kim Jong-un, amid preparations for a direct Trump-Kim summit.
The news of the visit came just hours after the White House had confirmed “extremely high level” talks with North Korea. This is about as high level as it gets, as Pompeo is not only CIA Director, but the Secretary of State-nominee.
Officials are refusing to publicly speak on the Pompeo visit, saying they don’t comment on secret CIA Director travel. Trump has suggested his summit will be in early June, and five locations are under consideration.
Previous reports indicated that the US-North Korea talks were being coordinated through the New York office, where North Korea has diplomats for the UN. A visit by one of Trump’s favorite cabinet members to North Korea is clearly a much higher level of discussion.
This is the highest-level US visit to North Korea since 2000, when Madeline Albright met with Kim Jong Il. It is the first time Kim Jong Un has been reported to have met with a US official.
So, they can talk to this guy but can’t deal with Syria or Russia?
With this guy political points are still believed possible to score? But against Syria or Russia they seem to think there’s only humiliation and loss of face if they would engage, go over the facts or reach some deal. And it would not surprise me if this is someone else’s playbook entirely, like South Korea holding the cards and calling the shots here.
This guy had nukes, Suria does not.
Kim’s still alive; obviously ‘polite but have a plan’ Mattis wasn’t present.
There may be peace but the peninsulas will not be permitted to be united until Uncle Sammy Davis has removed all presence.
It might be best for the U.S. to leave anyway; its a militarily untenable position.
If China moves on Taiwan as the recent U.S. naval visit provisions passed into law seem intended to provoke, and China seems to have been getting impatient even before that, South Korea would become a chip in play.
A neutral, possibly united Korea with no U.S. troops yet no North Korean threat is to U.S. advantage. The Korean economy could continue to contribute to the Western economic sphere regardless of U.S.-China tensions.
Why the CIA rather than the State Dept?
The CIA is the State Dept.
Now that we have a new Prince of Darkness (Richard Perle had to vacate the post), it’s anyone’s guess what new “diplomatic” initiatives Pompeo has up his sleeve. Just know, though, they will be done in secret, and will involve massive disregard for the US Constitution and the rule of law. The Deep State has become the Department of State.