North Korean officials did not show up Thursday for a meeting with Americans to discuss the return of the remains of those U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War, according to officials.
The repatriation of remains was one of the key points of North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un’s deal with President Donald Trump in Singapore.
It was seen as one of the few tangible points in the agreement and one the president has bragged about repeatedly.
American military officials went to Panmunjom for the meeting on Thursday but their North Korean counterparts did not, a U.S official told The New York Times.
President Donald Trump boasts North Korea is denuclearizing because they’re ‘blowing up another’ missile site and there’s ‘no more music playing at the border’
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference before departing the NATO Summit in Brussels. With him are Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, and National Security Adviser John Bolton, right
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official, last week
But it’s not clear whether the Americans were stood up because Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was in North Korea last week, had warned the date of the meeting could move by ‘a day or two’ – an indication the two sides had not agreed on all the details.
North Korea has returned the remains of some American soldiers but about 5,300 remains are unaccounted for.
Trump, in the meantime, boasted North Korea is denuclearizing because they’re ‘blowing up another’ missile site and there’s ‘no more music playing at the border.’
‘I really think that we established very good relationships,’ Trump said Thursday at his press conference at the NATO summit in Brussels. ‘They’ve blown up a site. I hear they’re blowing up another site, missile site.’
It’s unclear what missile site the president was referring to and there have been no reports of such action taken by North Korea.
Trump also touted a lack of music at the North Korean and South Korean border as a sign of progress.
‘They’ve taken down all of the propaganda. In fact, somebody said there’s no more music playing at the borderline. You know, the music was going on for many years. They said recently that, wow, there’s no more of the heavy music and the propaganda,’ he said.
For years, giant speakers at North Korea’s propaganda village, Kijong-dong, on the Demilitarized Zone, would blast a looping playlist of hard rock music and patriotic speeches. In February, when the Winter Olympics began in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the speeches gave way to pleasant choral and folk music. South Korea has also blasted music across the DMZ.
Trump said these were all signs of ‘good progress.’
‘It’s a good progress, but the main thing is there have been no rocket launches, there have been no missile tests. There’s been no nuclear tests, no explosions, no nothing for almost nine months,’ he noted.
The president also asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was in North Korea last week to work out the details of the deal agreed to between Trump and Kim Jong-Un in Singapore in June, to speak.
Pompeo kept a positive note in his remarks at the NATO summit saying while there is work to be done, North Korea is committed to denuclearization.
‘We had a productive conversation. There remains a great deal of work to do,’ Pompeo said. ‘But I think most importantly my counterpart Kim Young-chul made a commitment consistent with what President Trump was able to achieve with Chairman Kim, which was, they intend to denuclearize, they are going to accomplish it, and now the task is to get it implemented.’
But there were no visible signs of progress seen on the denuclearization talks.
And Kim snubbed Pompeo, meeting with potato farmers instead of the secretary of state.
North Korea leader Kim Jong Un inspects Chunghung farm in Samjiyon County in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency
North Korea leader Kim Jong Un inspects Chunghung farm in Samjiyon County, North Korea in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency
Kim and Trump met in Singapore in June to talk about denuclearization
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official, arrive for a lunch in North Korea last week
One source told CNN the White House felt Pompeo’s trip went ‘as badly as it could have gone.’
‘The North Koreans were just messing around, not serious about moving forward,’ the source said, adding that Pompeo had been promised a meeting with Kim, so not getting that meeting sent a big message.
North Korea said it was seriously disappointed by Pompeo’s visit, accusing him of making a “gangster-like demand for denuclearization,” while failing to offer any incentives.
Meanwhile, North Korea has made no public statements about the future of its nuclear weapons program.
In May, North Korean officials detonated explosives at a site where it conducted all six of its nuclear tests to date and called it the dismantling of the facility. Three tunnels were demolished at the site in Punggye-ri, which is the North’s only known nuclear test site.
However, experts caution that there were no officials on hand from the United Nations or any other independent body to verify whether the site had been completely destroyed or whether it could be repaired should North Korea resume testing.
Satellite images from the country a few weeks ago suggest improvements have been made at a rapid pace at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center.
The analysis from the group 38 North, which monitors North Korea, came nine days after Kim signed an agreement with Trump in Singapore.
The level of operations at the facility is not clear but it raises questions of how Kim is curbing his country’s nuclear program in the wake of his historic meeting with Trump.
The president, however, has remained firm in his belief the nuclear threat is gone.
Trump tweeted after landing back in the States after his meeting with Kim: ‘There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.’
But questions remain about the implementation of the Singapore agreement, whic was criticized for lacking specifics, a timeline and accountability measures.