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Pompeo: U.S. Will Resume ‘War Games’ if Negotiations With North Korea Stall

He said the “precedent for the exercises not to proceed was productive, good-faith negotiations being ongoing.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended Trump’s summit with Kim Jong Un in a meeting with reporters Wednesday, while threatening to resume joint military exercises with South Korea if negotiations with North Korea stall, Bloomberg reports. Despite the fact that he had insisted on “complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization” (CVID) before lifting economic sanctions for weeks prior to the summit, Bloomberg notes, Pompeo told reporters that “the language used in the document encompassed those demands, even though they weren’t spelled out.” When asked by a reporter why CVID wasn’t explicitly stated in Trump and Kim’s agreement, Pompeo called the question “insulting and ridiculous and frankly ludicrous,” and added that “I just have to be honest with you, it’s a game, it’s a game, and one ought not play games with serious matters like this.” He did, however, expand on his perspective on Trump’s plan to end “war games,” explaining that Trump “made it very clear that the condition precedent for the exercises not to proceed was productive, good-faith negotiations being ongoing. And at the point that it’s concluded they are not, the president’s commitment to not have those joint exercises take place will no longer be in effect.”