US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claims he has had a "very positive" meeting with North Korea's foreign minister and will visit Pyongyang again next month to prepare for a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Pompeo wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that his meeting with Ri Yong Ho on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York was to discuss the summit and "next steps toward denuclearisation of #NorthKorea."
"Much work remains, but we will continue to move forward," Pompeo said.
The US State Department said Pompeo accepted an invitation from Kim to visit Pyongyang next month, for what will be his fourth visit this year.
Trump held an unprecedented first summit with Kim in Singapore on June 12 that yielded a broad pledge by Kim to "work toward" denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
Kim's commitments and actions, however, have fallen short of Washington's demands for a complete inventory of North Korea's weapons programs and irreversible steps to give up a nuclear arsenal that potentially threatens the US.
Trump said on Wednesday the US and North Korea had "a wonderful relationship going" and he would announce the timing and location of his next meeting with Kim in the "very near future."
Pompeo told "CBS This Morning" earlier that US officials were working "to make sure we get the conditions right" for a second summit. He said any future summit could happen in October, but more likely after that."
Trump, asked as he entered the UN what North Korea had to do before a second summit, said there had been "a tremendous amount of progress" since last year, and added: "They're denuclearising North Korea."
Trump's stance on North Korea this year has been dramatically different from those in his speech last year at the UN assembly, when he threatened to "totally destroy" the country and mocked Kim as "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission".
In his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump praised Kim for his courage in taking steps to disarm, but said much work still had to be done and sanctions must remain in place on North Korea until it denuclearises.
On Wednesday, Trump told the UN Security Council that many positive things were happening behind the scenes on North Korea, "away from the media."
"So I think you will have some very good news coming from North Korea in the coming months and years," he said.
