White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders announced during Monday’s press briefing that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would be heading back to North Korea on Thursday, July 5 for meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
“To continue the ongoing and important work of denuclearization on the Korean peninsula, Secretary Pompeo will be leaving for North Korea on July fifth to meet with the North Korean leader and his team,” Sanders told reporters. More details on the trip are set to be released from the U.S. State Department.
One reporter asked about weekend reports that North Korea is either continuing or enhancing its nuclear program or seeking to deceive the Trump administration.
Sanders declined to either confirm or deny intelligence reports, but said that the United States is “continuing to make progress” on the issue and has seen “progress and momentum in the process” of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.
She pointed to the lack of North Korean missile launches in the past eight months and continuing conversations between officials of the two nations. She referred to a meeting held one day prior and Pompeo’s upcoming trip as part of discussions on denuclearization.
Sanders referenced comments from National Security Advisor John Bolton that the dismantling of North Korean ballistics programs could be accomplished in the span of about one year.
Pompeo made what is understood to be a first trip to North Korea to discuss denuclearization of the Korean peninsula over Easter weekend this year. He was the Secretary of State nominee at that time and serving as Director of the CIA. He met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on that trip.
Pompeo later returned to the extremely secretive country as U.S. and North Korean officials worked out the details of a meeting between the leaders of the two nations to discuss denuclearization.
President Trump met with Kim for the first and only time thus far in Singapore in early June.
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