MIKE POMPEO/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “For weeks, President Donald Trump has said he might walk away from a bad deal with North Korea. On Wednesday [5-16-18], Pyongyang signaled that it, too, might turn its back on talks. North Korea’s warnings that it would cancel a June summit if Washington insists on rapid disarmament highlight the depth of the division between the two sides in denuclearization talks. In a statement carried by North Korean state media, a senior diplomat, Kim Kye Gwan, expressed ‘indignation’ and said Pyongyang wasn’t interested in trading its weapons for economic assistance…In remarks early Wednesday to reporters, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the White House wasn’t surprised by the threat…The harshly worded North Korean statement, and another broadside criticizing military exercises under way in South Korea, came after weeks of discussions between the two sides that appeared to be gaining momentum. Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Pyongyang for a second meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and returned with three detained U.S. citizens—a move that Mr. Trump said signaled North Korea’s willingness to improve ties with the U.S.”
-Jonathan Cheng and Andrew Jeong, “North Korea Wavers on U.S. Summit, Accentuating the Gap Over Nuclear Weapons,” The Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2018 10:23 am