Wow. The art of the deal.
Pompeo signals 'progress' as North Korea pans talks
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Pyongyang on Saturday seemingly optimistic after two days of high-level talks, but without announcing any concrete steps North Korea would take or a timeline towards denuclearization.
North Korea, however, poured cold water on the talks, saying the "attitude" of the US was "regrettable" and not in the spirit of the June 12 summit in Singapore between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"We had many hours of productive conversations," Pompeo told reporters Saturday in Pyongyang before boarding a flight to Tokyo.
"These are complicated issues, but we've made progress on almost all the central issues. Some places, a great deal of progress. Other places, there's still more work to be done."
But North Korea called the outcome of the discussion "worrisome" and argued that the "cancerous issues" the US delegation raised were the same ones that had "amplified" distrust and the risk of war with past administrations and caused previous talks to end in failure, adding that its "willingness to denuclearize could falter."
"We expected the US to bring constructive measures to build confidence in accordance with the spirit of the US-NK Summit," the statement carried by state-run news agency KCNA said.
"However, the attitude of the US in the first high-level talks held on the 6th and 7th were indeed regrettable."
The statement added: "The United States is fundamentally mistaken to think that the demands that reflect their 'robbery mentality' are acceptable to our patience."
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