Summit Preparations

[Anchor Lead]

During his trip to the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Washington is working out the details of the second North Korea-U.S. summit, a step forward from three days ago, when he said that the conversations with Pyongyang are moving forward. It appears the preparation for the second summit is in full swing.

[Pkg]

In an interview with CBS during his trip to the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Washington is working out the details of the second summit with North Korea. The CBS interviewer asked him when the next summit would be, referring to Ambassador Bolton's remark that the next summit with Kim Jong-un would be in January or February. The Secretary answered that "we are working out the details." Secretary Pompeo had said in an earlier interview with Fox News on January 11th that they are moving forward in these conversations with North Korea. Judging from his remarks, undisclosed discussions about the summit venue and schedule seem to be in full swing. Meanwhile, the Japanese media including Yomiuri and Asahi reported that U.S. President Donald Trump had proposed to North Korea to hold the talks in Vietnam in mid-February. North Korea reportedly is considering the proposal but has not given any answer yet. The Straits Times of Singapore wrote that the possible venues have been narrowed down to Vietnam and Thailand. A high-ranking government source in Korea recently told reporters that the possibility of holding the summit during the Seol or lunar New Year's holiday has not been excluded. As the second sit-down between Trump and Kim is growing more likely, experts project that a high-ranking officials' meeting will take place soon to fine-tune the details.