CIA director Mike Pompeo met secretly with Kim Jong Un

Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Pompeo has reportedly made a secret trip to North Korea to meet Kim Jong Un as an envoy for Donald Trump.

CNN reports that Pompeo, who was recently nominated by Trump to become US secretary of state, reportedly took “only intelligence officials with him on the trip, no White House or State Department officials”.

The CIA has not confirmed whether the meeting took place, and the White House has issued a statement saying that it does not comment on the CIA director’s travel.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

However, the US President yesterday told members of the press at his Mar-a-Lago resort about an unspecified high-level meeting, confirming that the US and North Korea are working towards having the leaders of both countries meet “in early June, or a little before”.

“We have had direct talks at very high levels, extremely high levels, with North Korea. And I truly believe there is a lot of good will. A lot of things are happening. Good things are happening,” he said.

The White House later clarified that Trump and Kim have not yet spoken directly.

Pompeo’s visit to North Korea marks “the highest-level contact between the two countries since 2000, when then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with Kim Jong Il,” the Washington Post says.

News of Pompeo’s meeting with the North Korean leader comes just over a week before South Korean President Moon Jae-in is due to meet with Kim, to discuss a potential peace treaty and denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.