{ "error": "", "type": "text", "title": "Secretary Pompeo At a Press Availability - China and North Korea", "slug": "secretary-pompeo-at-a-press-availability-china-and-north-korea-1", "text": "
\"Moving to a second category, our mission to protect human rights and freedom around the world.<\/p>\n
I talked about this a little bit last week. We continue to monitor with growing concern Beijing\u2019s increasing efforts to interfere with Hong Kong\u2019s governance. The erosion of Hong Kong\u2019s freedoms is inconsistent with the promises that the Chinese Communist Party itself made under One Country, Two Systems. Any effort to impose draconian national security legislation on Hong Kong would be inconsistent with Beijing\u2019s promises, and would impact American interests there. [...]
Simply put, in upcoming 5G networks, mobile data traffic entering American diplomatic systems will be subject to new, stringent requirements if it has transited Huawei equipment. The objective is that untrusted IT vendors will have no access to U.S. State Department systems. We will follow the letter of the law to ensure that we have a clean path for all 5G network traffic coming into all of our facilities, period. We will keep doing all we can to keep our critical data and our networks safe from the Chinese Communist Party. [...]
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QUESTION:<\/strong> Speaking of that foreign policy mission, North Korea, I\u2019d like to ask you what you know about Kim Jong-un\u2019s health, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll get much out of you there. So \u2014<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> So you\u2019re going to ask something different, yeah. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n QUESTION:<\/strong> Unless you\u2019d like to prove me wrong; I\u2019m happy to take whatever you know. But I\u2019d like to ask you, as somebody who has a lot of knowledge of both the leader and the country North Korea, I\u2019m wondering if you think North Korea would be safer or more dangerous with or without Kim Jong-un in charge. And I\u2019m also wondering, is the U.S. making plans for what would happen if he dies or is no longer in place as the president of that country? Thank you.<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> Yeah. So I don\u2019t have anything to add to the status of Chairman Kim. I think the President commented on it yesterday. We did have a chance to interact with a number of North Koreans on our various trips, the ones that I took along with my team and then when the President traveled there for \u2013 to meet with Chairman Kim and his team as well. So we\u2019ve had a chance to meet Chairman Kim\u2019s sister and some of the other leaders there as well.<\/p>\n Our mission is the same. Regardless of what transpires inside of North Korea with respect to their leadership, our mission remains the same. It\u2019s to deliver on the agreement that Chairman Kim made with President Trump back in Singapore, and that\u2019s the fully denuclearized, verified denuclearization of North Korea. We are still hopeful that we\u2019ll find a path to negotiate that solution, to get the outcome that is good for the American people, good for the North Korean people, and the whole world. Our mission simply won\u2019t change no matter what should transpire there.<\/p>\n QUESTION:<\/strong> But does that mission get harder if he\u2019s no longer there?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> Well, there\u2019s a lot of work to do on it. We\u2019re going to continue to focus on it. Thank you. [...]<\/p> QUESTION:<\/strong> Hi. Given the reliance on China when it comes to medical supplies and that supply chain, which obviously those supplies are desperately needed in the U.S. right now, does the Trump administration have to wait until this health care crisis in the United States is over before you can actually talk about the specifics of inflicting a price on China as you have repeatedly said this administration will do?<\/p>\n SECRETARY POMPEO:<\/strong> Our first priority, unambiguously, is to address the crisis in which we find ourselves as a direct result of this virus that came out of Wuhan, China. That\u2019s been the Vice President\u2019s task force focus, it\u2019s been our State Department\u2019s focus on both the side of doing our best to understand what happened there as well as getting the American people back. This is a moment. We\u2019ve got to get it right. We\u2019ve then got to get the economy cranked back up. There\u2019ll be ample time to evaluate how it is we hold accountable those responsible for loss of what is now tens of thousands of American lives and enormous amount of wealth \u2013 not only American wealth, but the global economy\u2019s devastation as a result of this virus.<\/p>\n There\u2019ll be a time for this. We\u2019ll get that timing right. And as President Trump said when he took office, we\u2019re no longer going to tolerate a non-reciprocal behavior from the Chinese Government. We saw it first in trade. We said we want it free, we want it abundant, and we want it reciprocal. He drove towards that, he got a phase one trade deal. We were hopeful we could move out on the second part of that as well. And that\u2019ll ultimately be the decision of the Chinese Communist Party: Are they prepared to engage in trade in a way that is fair and reciprocal?<\/p>\n The last thing I\u2019ll say is overnight. I saw comments from the Chinese foreign ministry talking about coercive activity with respect to Australia, who had the temerity to ask for an investigation. Who in the world wouldn\u2019t want an investigation of how this happened to the world? I assume the people of China \u2013 they\u2019re good people. There are doctors, scientists there. Imagine if those scientists and doctors were working in our system, in a free system where you put a hypothesis forward and it was challenged but you had the freedom to talk and publish papers and others could comment and \u2013 this is what democracies do best.<\/p>\n The solution to this crisis will come from freedom-loving people around the world. I am very confident of that. Authoritarian regimes are poorly designed to deal with the kind of crisis that this pandemic has engendered. Democracies, where we\u2019re free to critique and comment and you can ask the Secretary of State a hard question \u2013 these are the kinds of places where scientists and freedom and thought and journalists can all operate freely. These are the societies that will deliver the right outcome, will deliver the therapeutics, will deliver the vaccines, will get the right outcome to get our economies back going again. I am highly confident of that. This is where we see the true benefit of freedom and liberty, and in the days and weeks and months ahead I am confident that the world will see that as well.\"<\/p>",
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