A source confirmed Tuesday that FBI Director Mike Pompeo met with North Korea’s leader in Pyongyang at the beginning of this month.
According to one source, President Donald Trump’s Secretary of State nominee Pompeo took only intelligence officials with him on the trip, but no officials from the White House or State Department. The meeting laid the groundwork for direct talks between Trump and Kim about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program which are to take place somewhere in June or even sooner, The Washington Post writes.
The top-secret visit came soon after Pompeo was nominated to be secretary of state.
“I’m optimistic that the United States government can set the conditions for that appropriately so that the President and the North Korean leader can have that conversation [that] will set us down the course of achieving a diplomatic outcome that America so desperately — America and the world so desperately need,” Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week during his confirmation hearing.
President Trump indicated on Tuesday that Pompeo and Kim had a face-to-face meeting, saying the United States has had direct talks with North Korea “at very high levels.” However, the White House declined to comment on Pompeo’s visit.
The upcoming meeting between Trump and Kim would be the first direct encounter between a sitting U.S. President and a North Korean leader. Kim is also due to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-In next Friday. The meeting will take place at the demilitarized zone between the two countries.
An administration official familiar with Pompeo’s encounter with Kim told CNN the North Korean leader had been “personable and well prepared” for the meeting, but added there was a sticking point over the location of his meeting with Trump.
Several locations have been considered, including the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, a neutral European city like Stockholm or Geneva or even Pyongyang.
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