You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Pompeo Held Clandestine Meeting with Kim Jong-un

HeadlineApr 18, 2018

President Trump has confirmed that CIA Director Mike Pompeo held a clandestine meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang over two weeks ago. The secret meeting came as President Trump and Kim Jong-un are preparing for a possible face-to-face meeting, which would be the first time a sitting U.S. president has met with a North Korean leader.

Mike Pompeo is President Trump’s nominee to replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. Critics are asking why the CIA director was chosen to carry out the clandestine talks and whether the leaking of the story is related to the increasing resistance to his confirmation from lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and New Hampshire Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen have all said they will vote against recommending Pompeo to the full Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could still bring Pompeo’s confirmation vote to the Senate floor, although it would be the first time for a secretary of state nominee to fail to be recommended by the committee since 1925.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top