CIA director Mike Pompeo secretly met Kim Jong-Un in North Korea over Easter, US reports

CIA director Mike Pompeo, pictured, reportedly met secretly with Kim Jong-Un over Easter
AFP/Getty Images

The director of the CIA Mike Pompeo had a secret meeting with Kim Jong-Un in North Korea during Easter, according to US reports.

Mr Pompeo reportedly met the North Korean leader as part of an on going effort to lay the foundations for direct talks between President Donald Trump and Kim.

The CIA has not confirmed the meeting but other US officials have confirmed the reports, according to the Associated Press news agency.

The reported meeting would be the highest level meeting between the two countries since 2000 when then secretary of state Madeleine Albright met Kim Jong-il, Kim’s father, in Pyongyang.

Kim Jong-Un laughs while analyising a North Korea missile launch, thought to be capable of reaching anywhere in the US
AFP/Getty Images

The US President said on Tuesday that officials had held direct talks with the rogue state over a potential summit with leader Kim Jong Un.

He did not clarify that it was Mr Pompeo who travelled to North Korea for the talks.

Mr Trump, speaking in Florida on Tuesday, said that five locations were being considered for the Kim Jong-un planned meeting.

North Korea: Ballistic Missile Test - In pictures

SKOREA-NKOREA-DIPLOMACY-DEFENCE
1/22

He was speaking as he hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who commended the president's "courage" in agreeing to meet the North Korean leader.

Mr Trump said: “We have also started talking to North Korea directly. We have had direct talks at very high levels, extremely high levels, with North Korea.

“I truly believe there is a lot of good will. A lot of things are happening. Good things are happening.”

He added: “We’ll see what happens. Because it’s the end result that counts, not the fact that we’re thinking about having a meeting.”

Trump added that the leaders’ summit could be “in early June or a little before”.

Trump’s meeting with Kim won’t be piece of theatre, says CIA boss

But he conceded it was possible that the unprecedented meeting might not happen at all.

“It’s possible things won’t go well and we won’t have the meetings… we will see what happens,” the president said.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in