The Chinese government under President Xi Jinping deserves to be blamed for “permitting” North Korea to develop nuclear weapons in the first place and undermining international efforts to resolve the issue with sanctions, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday. Pompeo, who served in the post between April 2018 and January 2021, visited Pyongyang at least four times when the Trump administration was seeking to find a diplomatic solution to the regime's nuclear weapons program.