(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump's surprise about-face on his top diplomat's trip to North Korea -- just a day after it was announced -- reinforced a sense of drift in the administration's strategy since the president proclaimed a June summit with Kim Jong Un an historic success.
The tweets canceling a visit to Pyongyang by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo cited a lack of “sufficient progress” in denuclearization talks, two months after he proclaimed on Twitter that “there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”
The decision “reflects poor coordination on the administration's North Korea policy,” Bruce Klingner, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst and now an Asia expert at the Heritage Foundation, said in a tweet. “The diplomatic road ahead is much longer and bumpier than originally depicted by President Trump.”
In the weeks since the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore, the administration has struggled to show any signs of progress in its efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program, which surprised intelligence analysts last year with its rapid development. Pompeo conceded before the Senate recently that Kim's regime continues producing fissile material and has provided no inventory of its nuclear program and facilities.
‘Gangster-Like'
In addition, Pompeo was spending more of his time shoring up support for the tough international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang last year. And on his last two meetings with North Korean officials, including a “polite” exchange with Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho in Singapore this month, Pompeo's proclamations of progress were undercut by Kim's aides and state-run media, who have assailed U.S. strategy as “cancerous” and “gangster-like.”
Trump's decision came after he discussed North Korea at a meeting Friday that included Pompeo, Vice President Mike Pence, Chief of Staff John Kelly, and the new envoy to North Korean talks, Steve Biegun, said two administration officials familiar with the talks.
The appointment of Biegun, a Ford Motor Co. official who once worked at the National Security Council, came on Thursday with news that he and Pompeo would travel to Pyongyang to resume talks as early as this weekend.
South Korea Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told Pompeo in a phone call that any delay to his visit was “regrettable,” according to a ministry statement released Saturday in Seoul.
China Talks
Trump's move also followed two days of trade talks with Chinese officials in Washington that ended without progress, a fact the president alluded to in his decision about the Pyongyang trip.
“I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Trump tweeted.
“Additionally, because of our much tougher Trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were (despite the UN Sanctions which are in place)...”
China said it remained committed to full North Korean denuclearization, and called any suggestion that its policy had changed "irresponsible," according to a statement Saturday on the website of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, citing spokesman Lu Kang's response to reporters.
The U.S. has leaned heavily on China to help enforce the tougher sanctions regime imposed in 2017 because Beijing is North Korea's largest trading partner and shares a border with the isolated nation.
In recent weeks, however, there have been signs that the sanctions are starting to weaken, while South Korea has moved ahead with initiatives aimed at improving ties with Pyongyang. That prompted the State Department to say “progress on inter-Korean relations must happen in lockstep with progress on denuclearization.”
