US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he has dispatched his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to North Korea to prepare for the upcoming summit with its leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump and Kim are expected to meet later this month or early in June for talks that would have been nearly unthinkable a year ago, when the two mercurial leaders were trading barbs and Pyongyang tested a barrage of missiles.
"At this very moment, Secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un," Trump said in a televised address from the White House.
Pompeo, who met Kim in Pyongyang about a month ago while he was still director of the CIA, will arrive in the North in "virtually an hour," Trump said.
"We have our meeting schedule. We have our meeting set. The location is picked. The time and date. Everything is picked. And we look forward to having a very great success," he said.
"We think relationships are building with North Korea. We will see how it all works out. Maybe it won't. But it can be a great thing for North Korea, South Korea and the entire world."
Trump's announcement came on the heels of talks in northeast China between Kim and China's Xi Jinping -- their second meeting in six weeks -- at which Kim reiterated his commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
The officials held talks on Monday and Tuesday in the coastal city of Dalian as part of a flurry of diplomatic engagement that has eased tensions on the Korean peninsula.
This marks the second times in two months that Kim and Xi meet in China.
China has been keen to show it has an indispensable role in seeking a lasting solution to tension over North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, concerned that its interests may be ignored, especially as North Korea and the United States establish contacts.
During the visit, announced only after it was over, Kim told Xi he hoped relevant parties would take “phased” and “synchronized” measures to realize denuclearization and lasting peace on the Korean peninsula.
“So long as relevant parties eliminate hostile policies and security threats towards North Korea, North Korea has no need for nuclear (capacity), and denuclearization can be realized,” China’s official Xinhua news agency cited Kim as saying.
Kim told Xi that the denuclearization of the peninsula was North Korea’s “constant and clear position”, and that dialogue between North Korea and the United States could build mutual trust.
Kim was accompanied by his sister, Kim Yo Jong, who has played a leading role in recent outreach by the long-isolated regime.
Chinese state media showed pictures of Kim smiling in an outdoors meeting with Xi, and the two leaders strolling along a waterfront.
Xi hosted a banquet and told Kim of his backing of North Korea’s “strategic shift towards economic development”, Xinhua added.
“China supports North Korea’s upholding of denuclearization on the peninsula and supports North Korea and the United States resolving the peninsula issue through dialogue and consultation,” Xi said.
North Korean state media said Kim was “very pleased” that the relationship with China was reaching a high point, and North Korea would cooperate with China more actively as the situation on the Korean peninsula changed.
The two leaders “opened their hearts and had warm conversations,” North Korea’s state news agency KCNA reported.
