TOKYO, July 8, 2018 (News Wires) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brushed off North Korean accusations of "gangster-like" diplomacy during negotiations in Pyongyang, saying on Sunday he will pursue denuclearisation talks after meeting his Japanese and South Korean counterparts. 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 that he made during a summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore last month. Pompeo's meeting with Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono and South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha followed two days of talks in Pyongyang that ended on Saturday. "When we spoke to them about denuclearisation, they did not push back," Pompeo told a news conference. "The road ahead will be difficult and challenging and we know that critics will try to minimise the work that we've achieved." Pompeo spoke after North Korea said the two days of talks with America's top diplomat "brought us in a dangerous situation where we may be shaken in our unshakable will for denuclearisation, rather than consolidating trust between the DPRK and the US". The statement, which referred to the North's formal name of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), was carried by the official KCNA news agency on Saturday soon after Pompeo left Pyongyang. Kim made a broad commitment in Singapore to "work towards denuclearisation" but did not give details on how or when he would dismantle North Korea's nuclear programme. Trump in turn offered security guarantees to Pyongyang and pledged a halt to large-scale military drills with South Korea. North Korea's latest comments, which came after Pompeo said talks had made progress, are a reminder of the difficulties that previous US administrations have had negotiating with the reclusive Stalinist state and suggest that Pyongyang may not agree to any rapid denuclearisation. Leaked US intelligence findings concluded that North Korea does not intend to give up its nuclear programme completely. Trump has vowed that North Korea will not be allowed to threaten the United States with its ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. His meeting with Kim in Singapore came after months of often bitter rhetoric and threats.
