CNN: Pompeo North Korea Visit Went 'As Badly as It Could Have Gone'

The White House felt that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit last week to Pyongyang, North Korea went poorly, a source told CNN.

"The North Koreans were just messing around, not serious about moving forward," the source told CNN's Michelle Kosinski and the White House felt that the trip went "as badly as it could have gone." 

Pompeo did not get a promised meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which sent a message, the source said.

"By now it's abundantly clear that this approach is a dead end," Adam Mount, director of the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists, told the news network.

"The White House has essentially tried to shoot for the moon and total disarmament, and it's clear that North Korea is not only not willing to do that, but sees very little reason to take steps in that direction."

Mount said Trump's reaction would be a concern. "Will he calculate that he stands to gain more domestically with returning to threats? Does he want to distract from domestic political or legal problems? All of those things could have volatile results," Mount told CNN.

Pompeo, speaking Wednesday to reporters as he arrived in Brussels for a NATO summit with President Donald Trump, said that change was up to North Koreans.

"This is a decades-long challenge, getting the North Koreans to make a fundamental strategic decision, which is that the nuclear weapons they possess today frankly present a threat to them and not security," said Pompeo, CNN reported.

North Korea news agency KCNA on Tuesday implied that Kim Jong Un snubbed Pompeo and was instead visiting a potato farm. 

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