MIKE POMPEO/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brushed off North Korean charges that he used ‘gangster-like’ diplomacy in negotiations in Pyongyang, saying on Sunday [7-8-18] after meeting his Japanese and South Korean counterparts that he would keep pursuing denuclearization talks with North Korea. Pompeo said in Tokyo there was still a lot of work to do, but he was confident North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would stick to a commitment to abandon nuclear weapons he made during a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore last month…Some U.S. senators expressed concern about North Korea’s harsh words and urged the Trump administration to keep up the pressure on Pyongyang. Republican Senator Joni Ernst, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said joint military exercises with South Korea suspended to show goodwill toward North Korea should be resumed ‘soon’ if talks sputter. Pompeo said that while he saw progress in Pyongyang, the United States was not relaxing the current sanctions regime or changing its ‘ironclad’ commitment to defend allies South Korea and Japan.”
–David Brunnstrom, Tim Kelly, Patricia Zengerle, “After Pyongyang put-down, Pompeo stands by ‘difficult’ denuclearization talks,” Reuters, July 7, 2018 8:36 pm