‘Trump sends his regards’: Pompeo hails progress with Kim after North Korea trip

Ahead of his visit to China, the US Secretary of State says he had ‘good talks’ with the North Korean leader, but there’s no indication yet of a second summit between Kim and Trump – and sources warn of a ‘long haul’ ahead

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the presidential Blue House in Seoul. Photo: EPA

Published: 7:38pm, 7 Oct 2018Updated: 11:21pm, 7 Oct 2018

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had made unspecified progress on Sunday toward an agreement for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. There was no immediate indication, though, if Pompeo managed to arrange a second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump.

Arriving in Seoul after spending several hours in Pyongyang on his fourth trip to North Korea, Pompeo tweeted that he and Kim had “good talks” and that they “continue to make progress on agreements made at the Singapore summit,” referring to the historic June meeting between Trump and Kim that resulted in a vague agreement for the North to denuclearise.

He offered no details and upon landing in South Korea briefed White House national security adviser John Bolton and chief of staff John Kelly on his trip, officials said. Pompeo, on the third stop of a four-leg trip that began in Japan and will end in China, then met South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in and foreign minister.

“I dearly hope that your latest visit, as well as the upcoming US-North Korea summit, which I hope will be happening soon, will make an irreversible, decisive progress in terms of the denuclearisation as well as the peace process,” Moon said. “Since we have the media present here, I would like to ask you to disclose anything that you can open to the public here.”

Pompeo declined that opportunity.

“I will certainly tell you in private about our conversation, but we had a good, productive conversation,” Pompeo said. “As President Trump said, there are many steps along the way and we took one of them today. It was another step forward. So this is, I think, a good outcome for all of us.”