Pompeo praises Trump for getting N. Korea to dialogue table, to stop nuclear tests

By Byun Duk-kun

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday commended U.S. President Donald Trump for keeping North Korea from staging additional nuclear and long-range missile tests while also bringing home Americans kept hostage in the communist state.

The top U.S. diplomat made the remark during a rare and much criticized appearance at the Republican Party's National Convention, offering his full support for Trump.

"I have a big job -- as Susan's husband and Nick's dad. Susan and Nick are more safe, and their freedom's more secure because President Trump has put his America First Vision into action," Pompeo told the convention in a video feed from Jerusalem where he is on a visit.

"In North Korea, the president lowered the temperature and, against all odds, got the North Korean leadership to the table," Pompeo said.

Trump has held two bilateral summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, one each in June 2018 and February 2019, becoming the first-ever incumbent U.S. president to meet a North Korean counterpart.

Trump insists his meetings and good relationship with Kim may have prevented what would have been an imminent war.

But the Democratic Party accuses Trump of cozying up to dictators such as Kim.

Pompeo defended the way Trump handled North Korea.

"No nuclear tests, no long-range missile tests, and Americans held captive in North Korea came home to their families, as did the precious remains of scores of heroes who fought in Korea," he said.

North Korea has yet to stage any nuclear or long-range missile test since Trump and Kim first met in June 2018. The communist state conducted its sixth and latest nuclear test in September 2017.

However, denuclearization talks between the two have stalled since their second and last summit in 2019 ended without a deal.

Pyongyang has also blown up a South Korea-built liaison office in its border town of Kaesong in what many experts have viewed as an attempt to partly express its frustration over the impasse in its dialogue with Washington.

Meanwhile, Pompeo's appearance at the Republican National Convention prompted a debate over a possible violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits political activity by all employees of the federal government, except for the president and vice president.

His appearance also came about a month after Pompeo himself sent a cable to all U.S. diplomatic missions, warning them not to take overt sides in the upcoming presidential election, according to earlier reports.

bdk@yna.co.kr
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