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| U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo |
"There remains an awful lot of work to do, but good things have happened already," he said during the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The remarks came a day after the U.S. and North Korea finished a working-level dialogue in Sweden where delegations from both sides and South Korea had three days of discussions to narrow their differences on the detailed agenda for the upcoming Washington-Pyongyang summit slated for later next month.
The positive response from Pompeo adds to the ongoing optimistic signals for rapid and smooth progress in the stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea.
Even though the working-level talks took place behind closed doors, there have been a series of upbeat signs over their outcome. Sweden's foreign ministry said the discussions were "constructive" enough for the interested parties to have ironed out their differences on diverse issues encompassing confidence building and developments on the Korean Peninsula.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed hopes for the Sweden talks to further the dialogue momentum between Washington and Pyongyang, and help them generate actual progress in their denuclearization negotiations.
North Korea, however, remained silent about the talks; but a string of recent peace signals have raised expectations that the second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will proceed smoothly. These include Kim's remarks during his New Year address earlier this month when he showed his strong desire for a second meeting with Trump for a breakthrough in the ongoing stalemate in the nuclear disarmament negotiations.
Pompeo also hinted that private investment would play a critical role as a bargaining chip to drive the North's complete denuclearization.
This is because economic prosperity is what Kim is now pursuing, rather than nuclear armament.
The young leader of the regime has delivered his firm determination to push for economic growth, and denuclearization of the peninsula.
President Moon Jae-in said Kim shared his strong will for the regime's economic prosperity and denuclearization of the peninsula during a series of inter-Korean summits last year.
But the ongoing economic sanctions imposed on the regime by international organizations is preventing Pyongyang from receiving foreign investment and financial support.
Washington is also well aware that providing sanctions relief is the most effective step to keep the North at the dialogue table and to achieve complete denuclearization of the peninsula.
Ever since the first U.S.-North Korea summit took place in June last year, Trump has repeatedly said that North Korea can realize economic prosperity only when it continues taking appropriate steps for denuclearization and peace on the peninsula.
But the North has continuously urged the U.S. to take reciprocal measures in return for the regime's steps toward nuclear disarmament, such as the dismantlement of its Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
With both sides failing to narrow their differences and reaching a deadlock in the momentum for reconciliation, calls had grown for a second Trump-Kim meeting.
Reflecting on the need, leaders of the two sides reaffirmed their strong determination earlier this year to hold a second summit as soon as possible.
Kim recently sent a letter to Trump to apparently discuss the need for the summit. By holding a series of pre-summit negotiations this month, the U.S. president confirmed last week that the second summit would take place in late February.
