The United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, on Thursday announced that he will visit North Korea next week to discuss the dismantling of the Pyongyang nuclear weapon programme.
The announcement came following the appointment of Ford Vice President Stephen Biegun as the US special representative to North Korea. Pompeo will be accompanied by Beigun on the trip.
" Stephen will direct U.S. policy towards North Korea and lead our efforts to achieve President Donald Trump's goal of the final, fully verified denuclearisation of North Korea, as agreed to by Chairman Kim Jong-un," Yonhap quoted Pompeo as saying,
He added that the visit to North Korea is to make "further diplomatic progress towards our objective", which is denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. However, Pompeo did not reveal the exact date of his visit.
This will be his fourth visit to North Korea. During his last visit in July, the state secretary called the meeting with the vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, Kim Yong-chol "very productive" and further told media that he "spent a good time talking about denuclearisation."
In June, Kim and US President Donald Trump signed a joint declaration following a summit in Singapore, according to which the North Korean leader committed for "complete denuclearisation of Korean Peninsula", while the U.S. President pledged "security guarantees" to North Korea.