Mike Pompeo met Kim during the Easter weekend and talked to the North Korean leader about the meeting with Trump.
The director of the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last week and formed a “good relationship”, President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday. Media reports on Tuesday claimed that Mike Pompeo had met Kim over the Easter weekend to discuss his planned meeting with Trump.
This is the highest-level contact between the US and North Korea since 2000, according to the BBC. Pompeo is Trump’s nominee to be the next secretary of state. Rex Tillerson was sacked from the role in March.
“Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong-un in North Korea last week,” Trump tweeted. “Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of summit are being worked out now. Denuclearisation will be a great thing for world, but also for North Korea!”
On Tuesday, Trump said that the two countries “have had direct talks at… extremely high levels”.
On March 8, the US president accepted North Korea’s invitation to meet Kim, after months of a hostile relationship. Tensions between the two countries escalated in 2017 after Pyongyang stepped up its nuclear efforts. That forced Trump to warn North Korea a number of times against boosting its nuclear weapons programme. The two leaders had also frequently traded ridicule, insults and threats.
