Pompeo to meet with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang

SEOUL: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Pyongyang on Sunday to meet with Kim Jong-un and prepare for a second summit between the North Korean leader and President Donald Trump.

The State Department’s announcement of Mr Pompeo’s trip confirmed what he promised last week — a visit soon to “make the final preparations” for another summit. Mr Pompeo, who would be making his fourth visit to the isolated country, is seeking a firmer commitment for Mr Kim to give up his nuclear weapons.

Unlike Mr Pompeo’s most recent visit in July, he will meet with Mr Kim and not just his deputies, according to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. After the previous trip, the North Korean denounced US disarmament demands as “gangsterlike” and “cancerous”. Trump postponed a follow-up visit by Mr Pompeo in August.

Mr Trump and Mr Kim held a first-ofits-kind summit in Singapore in June that generated tremendous attention, but only vague intentions from Mr Kim to work toward denuclearisation and peace on the Korean Peninsula. The US president, who wants to defend Republican control of Congress in November, has opened talks on a second meeting despite few concrete nuclear concessions from Kim.

Mr Pompeo’s Pyongyang visit, on Oct 7, will be wedged between brief stops in Tokyo and Seoul, Ms Nauert said.

He’s expected to travel to Beijing before heading home.

“I think it shows forward progress and momentum that the secretary is making his fourth trip back in less than a year,” Ms Nauert said.

“Of course, we have quite a ways to go, but we look forward to the next steps in this conversation.” she said.

Mr Pompeo’s counterpart, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, told the United Nations on Sunday that the regime wouldn’t dismantle its arsenal without “sufficient trust” with the US.