TOUGH TALK

Pompeo: U.S. Will ‘Walk Away’ if N. Korea Doesn’t Denuke

Secretary of state tells Congress a “bad deal is not an option.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday that the denuclearization of North Korea was the No. 1 priority, and that the U.S. would “respectfully walk away” from talks with the reclusive Kim Jong Un regime if that didn’t happen. “A bad deal is not an option,” he told the committee in his prepared testimony. Pompeo also pressed for stabilization in Syria to ward off an ISIS resurgence, for filling vacant positions at the State Department, and for no tolerance of Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections. On Tuesday, President Trump told reporters that there may be delays in the U.S.-North Korea talks, after a North Korean delegation reportedly failed to show up to a planning meeting and as North Korea canceled talks with South Korea over its joint military exercises with U.S. forces.