U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's planned meeting with a senior North Korean official Thursday in New York City has been postponed.
The State Department issued a statement early Wednesday morning saying the meeting "will now take place at a later date. We will reconvene when our respective schedules permit.” The statement did not give a reason why the meeting was called off.
Pompeo was slated to hold talks with Kim Yong Chol, a senior advisor to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In announcing the meeting earlier this week, the State Department said the two men would discuss "making progress on all four pillars of the Singapore Summit joint statement, including achieving the final, fully verified denuclearization" of North Korea.
Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump signed an agreement at their landmark summit in June to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons, but the two sides have been at odds over the pace of Pyongyang's efforts to end its nuclear weapons program.
North Korea warned last week that it will consider reviving its nuclear weapons program if the United States fails to lift its crippling economic sanctions against the regime. It is also seeking a peace treaty with the United States and South Korea that will formally end the 1950-53 Korean War that split the communist North from the democratic South.
美国国务卿蓬佩奥原定与朝鲜高级官员在纽约的会谈被推迟。
美国国务院周三一早发表声明说，“会谈将稍后举行，在我们各自的日程允许时”。声明没有给出会谈推迟的原因。
蓬佩奥原定与朝鲜领导人金正恩的高级顾问金英哲于星期四在纽约会面。国务院在早些时候宣布这一计划的时候表示，两人将讨论“在新加坡峰会的联合声明中提出的四项基本原则上取得进展，包括实现最终的、可全面核实的去核化。”
美国总统特朗普与金正恩在今年6月历史性的峰会上签署一项协议，以消除朝鲜半岛核武器，不过双方在平壤努力去除其核武项目的进展上有意见分歧。
朝鲜上周警告说，如果美国不放松针对其政权实施的经济制裁，将考虑重启其核武项目。朝鲜同时也在与美国和韩国谋求签署和平条约，正式结束1950年到1953年的韩战。那次战争使得共产主义朝鲜与民主的韩国分道扬镳。