Pompeo Says He Expects to Travel to North Korea Soon for Talks

(Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said he expects to travel to North Korea soon for another round of denuclearization talks and to prepare the way for a second summit between President Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong Un.

Citing Trump’s comment Monday that he anticipates meeting with Kim “quite soon,” Pompeo told reporters in New York that “I’m confident that that will happen. I expect I’ll be traveling to Pyongyang before too long as well to make the final preparations for the second meeting between the two leaders"

Pompeo, speaking alongside U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and National Security Adviser John Bolton, vowed that UN sanctions on North Korea will stay in place until it gives up its nuclear weapons. North Korean leaders have insisted on a step-by-step approach in which the U.S. would grant concessions at the same time North Korea does.

Pompeo said it would be “foolish” to set a date for when North Korea might complete denuclearization.

The secretary of state, who’s expected to speak with North Korean officials in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting this week, suggested more may be going on behind the scenes than is apparent.

“The conversations that we are having are important,” Pompeo said. “We will continue at every level to have those conversations, some of them you will all be aware of, some of them you won’t know are taking place. There’s lots going on.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Nick Wadhams in New York at nwadhams@bloomberg.net;Toluse Olorunnipa in New York at tolorunnipa@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert

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