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After Meeting Kim, Pompeo Says Now Sees Path to Denuclearized North Korea

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday that after his recent meeting with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un, he can now see a path forward toward the goal of denuclearizing North Korea.
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"While there is still a long way to go and much work to do, we can now see a path to where we'll achieve the ultimate goal, which is the full and final verified denuclearization of North Korea," Pompeo told reporters.

The State Department said Pompeo and Kim held a productive discussion on Sunday about the four elements contained in the joint statement signed by Trump and Kim at their first summit in June.

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Kim invited inspectors to visit the Punggye-ri nuclear test site to confirm it has been irreversibly dismantled, and both Kim and Pompeo agreed to have working-level teams meet in the near future to discuss other unresolved issues from the Singapore summit, the State Department added.

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Kim and Pompeo also discussed preparations for a second summit, and earlier on Tuesday Trump confirmed that the talks were centered around three or four possible locations for that meeting.

The first summit between the US and North Korean leaders took place in Singapore in June. During the meeting, the two sides reached an agreement stipulating that Pyongyang would make efforts toward the promotion of complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in exchange for security guarantees for North Korea.

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