N. Koreans miss chance to meet with Pompeo

BANGKOK -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday the Trump administration remains ready to resume talks with North Korea now, although he regretted a meeting between the two sides is unlikely at an Asian security conference this week in Thailand.

Pompeo said he and the administration's chief negotiator, Stephen Biegun, had hoped to meet with a senior North Korean official while in Bangkok for the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations forum. No such meeting had been formally scheduled, and the North's foreign minister was not expected at the three-day event in the Thai capital. Pompeo said it looked increasingly like those hopes would be dashed.

"We stand ready to continue our diplomatic conversation with the North Koreans," Pompeo told reporters at a joint news conference with the Thai foreign minister. "I regret that it looks like I'm not going to have the opportunity to do that while I'm here in Bangkok, but we're ready to go."

The annual ASEAN security meeting has been used in the past as a venue for U.S.-North Korea talks and although the North had signaled its top diplomat would not attend this year, Pompeo had held out hope for a change of heart.

Despite the apparent stand-up by the North, Pompeo said he believed a new round of working level talks led by Biegun and his North Korean counterpart could happen soon.

"I am optimistic that that will happen before too long," he said. "We're looking forward to a chance to reconnect with them in a formal way diplomatically."

Biegun was present in Pompeo's Thursday meeting with Chinese state councilor Wang Yi, and the State Department said he was in Bangkok for North Korea-related meetings but did not elaborate.

Pompeo, who has a full day of meetings in Bangkok today before leaving Saturday for Australia, made his comments shortly after the North announced progress in missile tests conducted over the past week.

North Korea said Thursday leader Kim Jong Un had supervised the first test firing of a new multiple rocket launcher system potentially enhancing its ability to strike targets in South Korea and U.S. military bases there. A report by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency differed from the assessment by South Korea's military, which had concluded Wednesday's launches were of two short-range ballistic missiles.

The launches from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan were North Korea's second weapons test in less than a week and were seen as a move to keep up pressure on Washington and Seoul amid a stalemate in nuclear negotiations. Pyongyang has also expressed anger over planned U.S.-South Korea military drills.