Pompeo Says North Korea Missile Tests Are of Concern to U.S.

(Bloomberg) -- North Korea’s continued missile tests are of concern to the U.S. government, and negotiations to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions have lagged, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said Tuesday.

"We haven’t gotten back to the table as quickly as we would have liked,” Pompeo said in an interview with “CBS This Morning.” “But we’ve been pretty clear all along that we know there would be bumps along the way.”

Asked whether he was concerned about North Korea’s sixth round of missile tests since July, Pompeo responded “Yes, I wish that they would not. In the end, Chairman Kim made a commitment to President Trump in Singapore in June of last year where he said that he was preparing to denuclearize. Our team’s effort at the State Department is to deliver that on behalf of the American people."

North Korea said Saturday that leader Kim Jong Un oversaw tests of an unspecified new weapon, in a move seen as an effort to pressure Washington and Seoul over joint military exercises and the status of nuclear talks, the Associated Press reported.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Kathleen Hunter

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