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"We need US troops in Korea to protect ourselves from the Chinese threat," North Korean Workers' Party General Secretary Kim Jong-un said five years ago.
Correspondent Kim Yun-soo of Washington will tell you what the meaning of the remark was.
<Reporter> This
is the memoir of former US Secretary of State Pompeo, who coordinated the North American talks at the time of the Trump administration.
The meeting between the two people was described in detail to the extent that the name of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was mentioned nearly 100 times.
In particular, in March 2018, there are notable conversations we had during our first visit to North Korea.
At the time, when I told Chairman Kim, "China has always said that Chairman Kim would be happy if the USFK withdrew," Chairman Kim hit the table and said, "The Chinese are liars."
Chairman Kim continued, "China said it was an intention to treat the Korean Peninsula like Tibet and Xinjiang, and said that it needed US troops in Korea to protect itself from China."
If true, this is an unusual statement for a North Korean supreme leader, and it is interpreted to mean that he takes China's threat and his own safety seriously.
Former Secretary Pompeo recalled that after the conversation with Chairman Kim, he decided that it was okay to strengthen the US missile and ground forces on the Korean Peninsula.
In the memoir, at the time of the trilateral summit between North and South Korea and the United States held at Panmunjom in June 2019, Chairman Kim wanted to meet only former President Trump, and it was also introduced that former President Moon Jae-in repeatedly requested to join.
As former Secretary of State Pompeo, who is considered to be a presidential candidate in the Republican Party, publishes a memoir, some say that he is actually starting the next presidential election challenge.
(Video coverage: Park Eun-ha, video editing: Kim Jong-mi, CG: Seo Dong-min)