마이크 폼페오 도살장에 끌려가는 소처럼, 미 상원 패널 발표장에 나가다

폼페오는 꾸중들은 고등학생처럼 트럼프 편지를 낭독했다. 마이크 폼페오가 트럼프 '북미회담 취소 편지'를 미상원 청문회 발표장에서 읽었다. inappropriate 발음도 'excuse me' 하면서 다시 수정하고, 입에 침이 말랐다.

미 상원 밥 메넨데즈가 공격조로 물었다 "미국이 준비가 덜 되어 자신감이 없어서 (북한과 협상테이블로부터) 걸어나와버린 것 아니냐?"  마이크 폼페오 국무장관이 답변했다. "우리는 만반의 준비를 해오고 있었다. 김정은 국무위원장과 나와 합의한대로 협상팀을 꾸려 나갔다. 그런데 최근 며칠 동안 북한의 협상팀이 모임에 나오지 않았다. " 

[마이크 폼페오 미상원 청문회장 발표를 보면서 느낀 점]

1. 마이크 폼페오조차도 트럼프의 '612 싱가포르 북미정상회담 취소' 결정을 미리 알지 못한 듯 보였다. 마이크 폼페오가 북한 김정은을 만나고 돌아온 후, 뉴스 인터뷰하던 당시 표정과 오늘 미국 상원 패널장에서 표정은 너무 달랐다. 불쌍할 정도로 마이크 폼페오 얼굴은 경색되었다. 

트럼프의 '취소 편지'를 읽어내려가는데, 정말 마지못해 '내 뜻은 이것이 아닌데' 이런 편지를 읽어야 하나? 그런 표정이었다. 

2. 트럼프는 마이크 폼페오 팀과 마이크 펜스 부통령팀 2개를 포트폴리오 (위험분산 전술)처럼 굴려왔다. 

'마이크 펜스는 내 새끼론'이 이번 612 북미정상회담 취소 결정과 밀접히 연결되었다고 본다. 마이크 폼페오는 펜스와 볼튼과 달리, 평양을 두차례나 다녀왔고, 김정은 국무위원장의 환대를 받았다. 이것은 어느 누구나 다 쉽게 추론할 수 있는 것이지만,  실제 김정은과 면담을 하고 온 마이크 폼페오는 국무장관 취임 이후, 자기 나름 정치적 성과를 내고 싶기 때문에, 612 싱가포르 북미정상회담 성공을 위해 노력해왔다. 

마이크 폼페오가 보여준 미상원 청문회장에서 표정을 봤을 때, 트럼프가 이번 '취소 결정'에서 마이크 펜스 부통령 손을 들어준 것에 대해서 못마땅했다는 게 역력했다.

최근 3~4일간 트럼프의 '북미회담 취소' 결정과정에서 트럼프는 과연 누구와 상의했는가? 풀리지 않는 의문이다.

마이크 폼페오에게 김정은으로부터 더 많은 것을 얻어 오라는 주문인가? 

 

Bob Menendez

MAY 24, 2018 / 11:04 AM / UPDATED 9 HOURS AGO

Pompeo says Pyongyang relations would return to 'situation normal'

Lesley Wroughton, Patricia Zengerle

4 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday relations with Pyongyang would return to “situation normal” after the cancellation of a historic leaders’ summit although he expressed hope that the sides could resume denuclearization talks.

Shortly after President Donald Trump announced he was calling off the meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Pompeo headed into a four-hour Senate hearing where Democrats slammed the administration’s handling of the matter.

“The art of diplomacy is a lot harder than the art of the deal,” Senator Bob Menendez, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said, referring to the title of Trump’s 1987 book.

Pompeo pushed back at the criticism during often heated exchanges over the administration’s tactics for the summit and what some Democrats said were unhelpful comments by U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, who suggested a Libya-style denuclearization for North Korea.

“I’m not sure that constantly quoting the Libya model is the diplomatic way to try to get to the results that we seek in North Korea, because that didn’t work out too well for Gaddafi,” said Menendez. Libya’s dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and killed in 2011 after he abandoned his country’s nuclear arms program in 2003.

Trump announced his abrupt withdrawal from the summit in a letter to Kim on Thursday and called it a “missed opportunity.”

Pompeo said the administration would not ease up on sanctions against Pyongyang and had a commitment from Beijing that it would abide by UN and other sanctions on North Korea.

“In some ways it’s ‘situation normal.’ The pressure campaign continues,” Pompeo said when asked whether relations with Pyongyang would return to the volatile rhetoric and nuclear threats of the past.

He said he was disappointed but not surprised that the summit did not work out.

Pompeo, who twice met with Kim in recent months, said that over the past “many days” North Korea had not responded to American planning queries about the summit.

“Over the past many days we have endeavored to do what Chairman Kim and I had agreed, to put preparation teams together to begin to work for the summit and we had received no response to our inquiries to them,” Pompeo said.

Pompeo said he hoped Pyongyang and Washington will be able to resume talks on dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear program but emphasized that the decision was ultimately up to Kim.

“I hope we quickly are able to get back to that place, but ultimately Chairman Kim will have that decision to make for himself,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies that North Korea has not responded in recent days to queries by the United States to prepare logistics for an upcoming summit during his appearance at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Toya Sarno Jordan

Pompeo said Trump had made the decision himself to withdraw after meetings on Wednesday at the White House in which he concluded the summit would not have a successful outcome.

“There is a lot of discussion within the administration about how to proceed on that. I am confident that in coming days we will have laid that out in some detail,” Pompeo said, “We always knew there could be a summit that didn’t work, that ultimately was unsuccessful.”

Reporting by Lesley Wroughton and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and James Dalgleish

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

동영상 링크 : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pompeo/pompeo-says-pyongyang-relations-would-return-to-situation-normal-idUSKCN1IP2ND

Don't cry for me, Mike Pompeo