thank you. announcer: at the state department tuesday, secretary of state mike pompeo discussed the proposed meeting between president trump and north korean leader kim jong-il and -- kim jong-un on june 12. he talked about the trump administration's strategy toward iran and filling senior administration level positions. this was 15 minutes. >> how are you today? i brought in a special guest with me today, mike pompeo, who is going to give you a quick briefing out of his meetings with the white house today. some of you may have questions following on the secretary's iran speech. he has a few minutes to take over your questions, then i will handle the rest of the briefing. secretary pompey -- secretary

pompeo, welcome. glad to have you here. secretary pompeo: good evening everyone. it has been one month since i have been here. i made a handful of commitments at the beginning, not the least of which was i would put the team back on the field. we have taken steps in working toward that. there remains a great deal of work to do. you should know i am committed to that. we will get there. we have listed the hiring freeze. than the mosther talented people including family members. we have made substantial progress in some of our senior level processes so that we get our ambassadors working the building. nothing to report just yet. as i committed when i gave testimony at my confirmation hearing, we are going to work on this diligently. it is one of my highest priorities to make sure we have the right people in the right places, every place in the world

so we can accomplish our diplomatic mission. i hope in the coming week or two to have significant announcements about the new senior leaders. second, i was in bilateral meetings with the south koreans. they were constructive. i think sanders has given a press conference about this, so i am happy to take questions about it. suffice it to say, we are continuing to prepare our team and the white house so that in the event the summit takes place june 12, we are fully prepared, with the mission statement having not changed at all. we are committed to achieving do conditions such that the korean regime no longer threatens the world. i gave some remarks yesterday on

the president's strategy with respect to the islamic republic of iran. i think it is important that i reemphasize that the tasks that iran needs to undertake aren't that difficult. i have seen reports that these are fantasy, and that they can't happen. we ask for things that are very simple, that most nations of the world engaged in. we ask them to stop firing missiles into riyadh. that is not a fantasy to imagine asking the iranians not to fire missiles into another nation and threaten american lives to travel through that airport. it is not a fantasy to ask them to cease engaging in terror. these were all demands we put on the rest of the world. if it was the case that some other country in the middle east desired to build a nuclear

weapons system, we would work to stop them too. these are a set of simple requirements that the iranian regime could easily comply with, and it would benefit the iranian people to an enormous extent. frankly, what we laid out seems like a pretty straightforward set of requirements we would put on any country in the world to stop maligned behavior that threatens other of its neighbors and other parts of the world. with that i'm happy to take a couple questions. yes, matt, good to see you. >> good to see you, sir. in washington. on north korea and the meanings today -- we have just met, so i don't know if you are a betting man, but if you were a betting man, what would you say the odds are for this meeting coming to

fruition at the date and time? are you prepared to meet again with kim jong-un if that is decided necessary to fully prepare for a summit? secretary pompeo: i will take your second question first. we will do what it takes to make sure this is a successful meeting, whether that is meeting with the north koreans or whatever it may take, we are prepared. the president will ask us to ensure that we have done all we can to make sure we have the real opportunity to have this historic successful outcome. i am not a betting man. i wouldn't care to predict that it would happen, only that we will be ready in the event that it does. >> mr. secretary, thanks very much. there are reports when you met with kim jong-un, you are looking at on a sunset, and he

allegedly said, wouldn't it be great if there were american hotels lining the scene? do you believe he is open to the idea of american investment in north korea? can you give us your thoughts on what would explain the change in tone from north korea? the president said he thought china had something to do with this. sec. pompeo: you mean the tone this past week? no, i'm not going to speculate about that. we are continuing to lay the foundation for a successful meeting. i am confident we will get there. with respect to chairman kim, i have not spoken publicly about the conversations we had. they were between he and i. i do have a real sense he would -- he would find american investment, technology, know-how of real value to his people.

it is something we had a chance to speak about generally. i think it is something if we get this right, and we get denuclearization right, then america would be quite capable of delivering them with lots of things that would make life better for the north korean people. >> thank you mr. secretary. the south korean government today put the chances at 99. sec. pompeo: i heard that, 99. >> is there something that gave president trump pause for his conversations with the north koreans? how would you describe, since you have left pyongyang, the what kind of communication the united states has had with north korea? sec. pompeo: i won't characterize that. chairman kim asked for that meeting. we worked to get a day and location.

we got those set. since then, we are driving on. it is clear we are working to make sure there is a common understanding of the contents discussed. i am optimistic. this could be something that comes right to the end. as the president said, we'll see, and i think that is the place we find ourselves. >> the president said the summit might be delayed. are you discussing possible new dates for it being delayed with the north koreans, and what are the issues that prevent june 12? are there logistical, or things you want to discuss with them? sec. pompeo: we're still working toward june 12. >> you are discussing this with them? sec. pompeo: we are working toward june 12. >> if i could turn toward iran. you talked about unprecedented financial pressure you want to

put on iran. when your critics bring up the idea of a fantasy, they say it is because europeans won't go along with you on the sanctions, therefore you can't re-create this financial pressure. what do you say to those critics? how do you get the europeans and others to go along, like china and russia, who continue to abide by the agreement? sec. pompeo: it is really straightforward. this is a global challenge. i mentioned this in my remarks yesterday. assassinations in european countries. this is a shared threat across the world. i am confident that we can collectively develop a diplomatic response that achieves the simple outcomes that we put forward. we wouldn't tolerate iceland doing what the iranians are doing. we wouldn't tolerate chad -- i can just pick a number. i am just tripping through the

alphabet. we wouldn't tolerate another nation behaving with terrorist proxy forces. we wouldn't tolerate that, right? if someone else created an equivalent of hezbollah, would we sit by? we would not, neither what the europeans, neither will the other arab countries. china and russia do not see that as a positive impact on the world either. i'm confident there is a overlapping set of interests that will drive us to the same conclusion about the need to respond to iran's threats to the world. >> i am sure you have seen some of those responses. >> if we could go back to the president's comments today discussing china. he caused some alarm when he i's second meeting with kim jong-un. do you know any more about that meeting, and why he is so hesitant to say the chinese were so helpful in that meeting?

sec. pompeo: i don't have anything more to add than what the president said. >> are the chinese helping push forward the u.s. summit? sec. pompeo: the chinese have offered historic assistance in the pressure campaign, with literally historic assistance. president trump has made clear, i have made clear too, it is central that pressure remains in place, and that china continue to participate in the pressure campaign. we have every reason to expect they will continue to do so. >> president rouhani said yesterday -- he questioned, who were you to tell another nation what to do in foreign policy? who are you to tell them what to do? what response do you have to him? sec. pompeo: i did not see those remarks. the iranian people get to choose

for themselves the kind of leadership, the kind of government they want. they get to choose the individuals who lead their country, and they get to live with the choices those leaders make. i wasn't describing what mr. rouhani should do, i was only articulating what america intends to do. >> last question. >> thank you very much mr. secretary. my question is on the iranian hostages. yesterday you mentioned the government is working hard to bring the american hostages home. can you give us an update and elaborate what efforts are underway given the relations? sec. pompeo: i suppose one might have two months ago described the relationships between the united states and dprk as frosty, and we returned three americans. we almost always have our citizens detained by countries

who aren't friendly to us. we work on mechanisms to deliver these outcomes. i talked to many family members. i know how central that is. you can rest assured the entire united states government is working diligently to bring -- i mentioned a handful of names yesterday, there are more around the world -- you should know we are working diligently along every avenue we can develop to get these folks to return home back to their families. i will take one more. >> i am trying to make this worth our time. sec. pompeo: that would be useful. [laughter] >> the demands that you laid out for iran yesterday, partially because you laid them all out, and partially because of what they are, there will not be much room for negotiation, if any. do you agree with that?

because of the way that was put out there, what makes you think iran will be willing to work with the u.s. on this? if it is sanctions, wouldn't it take a very long time at this point? sec. pompeo: i do not know which of those demands? should we allow them to be terrorists? is that one we should compromise on? how many missiles are they allowed to fire? the benchmark i set forward yesterday is a low standard. it is a standard of behavior we accept from countries around the world. there is not a special set of rules for iran, we simply ask them to behave the way normal non-belligerent nations behave. it is simple. is not a special category of people who are permitted to fire missiles into riyadh. just ask them to behave like a normal nation. i have every reason to think the iranian people want that for their country as well. this is a rich country with a

deep civilization and a wonderful history. i am convinced the people of iran, when they can see a path forward, which will lead their country to stop behaving in this way, will choose that path. thank you all. i look forward to seeing you down here. have a good day. i can't promise soon. ♪ c-span's "washington journal," live every day with issues that impact you. wednesday morning, a vanderbilt university professor on his new book on how americans forced through periods of fear. mark walker will be with us to talk about conservative priorities in the house. watch c-span's "washington journal lowe's quote wednesday journal"- "washington

wednesday morning. here is a rundown of live events wednesday. the house meet at 10:00 a.m.. they continue work on the defense programs built. the senate works on nominations. on c-span3, secretary of state the firsttifies for time at secretary beginning at 9:00 a.m.. --se democrats hear from about gun violence. a group of house conservatives held a news conference to discuss a resolution calling on jeff sessions to appoint a second special counsel. the group wants an investigation into possible justice department and fbi misconduct as well as investigations into hillary clinton during the presidential campaign.