Pompeo Will Visit North Korea to Set Up Second Trump-Kim Summit

The State Department announced on Wednesday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit North Korea in October to meet with senior officials and set up a second summit meeting between North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump.

“Today, Secretary Pompeo met with Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in New York. Secretary Pompeo accepted Chairman Kim’s invitation to travel to Pyongyang next month to make further progress on the implementation of the commitments from the U.S.-DPRK Singapore summit, including the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK, and to prepare for a second summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim,” the State Department said.

Foreign Minister Ri was in New York for the U.N. General Assembly. Pompeo described his meeting with Ri as “very positive” and said work will “move forward” on denuclearizing North Korea:

Both President Trump and Secretary Pompeo have hinted throughout the week that another summit meeting with North Korea was in the works. Pompeo told CBS News on Wednesday morning the messages from Kim Jong-un he has conveyed to President Trump indicate Kim is “intent on denuclearizing.”

“He understands that, he understands the scope of that and what that means, he’s been very consistent in his commitment in delivering on that promise, we need to find our way forward to achieve that for the world,” Pompeo said.

According to Pompeo, Kim made the important concession of allowing outside inspectors into his nuclear testing sites to verify compliance with the denuclearization agenda.

The secretary indicated a meeting between Trump and Kim could happen as early as October but was more likely to occur “some time after that.”

“I’m not going to talk about the conversations, the negotiation each day, the twists and turns. What we’re going to do is continue the good work we have had, we’re going to make sure there’s no more missile tests,  no more nuclear tests, we’re going to continue to work on getting American remains back,” Pompeo said.

“We’re going to continue to work toward denuclearization, and it will take a while. There will be a process to this,” he cautioned.