Trump To Meet With North Korea's Kim Jong Un Within Months
WASHINGTON DC (CBSNewYork) -- President Donald Trump confirming in a tweet this morning that his secretary of state designate, Mike Pompeo, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump says the meeting took place in North Korea last week.
Trump hinted he might have had direct talks with the North Korean dictator. Later, the White House clarified the two had no spoken.
"We've also started talking to North Korea directly," Trump said Tuesday. "We have had direct talks at very high levels."
Trump confirmed the meeting between Kim and Pompeo in a Tweet Wednesday.
"Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for world, but also North Korea," Trump wrote on Twitter.
Pompeo, who is facing a tight committee vote on his nomination, was asked last week about Trump's planned summit with Kim that the president said will be a chance to resolve the nuclear impasse.
"There is work being today in preparation for the president's proposed meeting with Kim Jong Un," Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Apr. 12.
Trump said five summit locations were under consideration. The two most likely are a neutral spot in the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea, or on a U.S. Navy vessel off the Korean peninsula.
"Hopefully that will be a success," Trump said.
Kim will meet South Korean President Moon Jae In next week amid heightened expectations they could declare a formal end to the Korean war. Trump endorsed the move.
"They do have my blessing to discuss the end of the war," Trump said.
The United States and North Korea do not have a formal diplomatic relationship, which complicates the arrangements for a meeting.
Trump is meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a second day at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
