Mike Pompeo’s dismissive and demanding attitude has led North Korea to demand he be removed entirely from the nuclear talks. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that Pompeo’s reaction was more of the same, dismissing North Korea’s wishes out of hand.



The State Department would only say they were “aware” of the report North Korea had made the demand, while Pompeo insisted that nothing had changed, and that he will continue to lead the negotiations.



Pompeo said he is “still in charge of the team. President Trump’s obviously in charge oft he overall effort, but it’ll be my team.” It’s not clear he’s going to find a welcome process to these talk, with North Korea accusing him of “talking nonsense” and showing a lack of maturity.



It’s not clear that Pompeo controlling the negotiating team matters much at any rate, since a big problem with Pompeo and Bolton in the talks has been that they are engaged more in demanding than negotiating. North Korea’s call for someone else is almost certainly tied to their long-standing interest to negotiate directly with President Trump, who they believe is actually willing to make a deal.

Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz