MIKE PENCE/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “North Korea has not taken ‘concrete steps’ to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, Vice President Mike Pence told a group of U.S. diplomats on Wednesday [1-16-19]. Speaking to about 180 U.S. ambassadors at a conference in the State Department, Pence said Pyongyang has not yet begun to fulfill its pledge for complete denuclearization made in a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last June in Singapore. ‘While the president has started a promising dialogue with Chairman Kim, we still await concrete steps by North Korea to dismantle the nuclear weapons that threaten our people and our allies in the region,’ Pence said. The vice president’s remarks came amidst growing signs that a second summit between Trump and Kim is in the works. North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator, Kim Yong Chol, is expected to arrive in Washington, D.C., on Thursday ahead of a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a South Korean newspaper and other media outlets reported Wednesday.”
–Thomas Maresca, “Pence: US is still waiting for North Korea to take ‘concrete steps’ toward denuclearization,” USA Today, January 17, 2019 11:26 am