[ad_1]
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to meet next week with a North Korean counterpart to push for progress on the world's leaders.
U.S. officials have met with Japan and South Korea, and Mr. Pompeo said a second summit between President Trump and North Korea Kim Jong A could yield a "substantial breakthrough in the nuclear threat from North Korea."
The meeting next week, reported by Mr. Pompeo in a radio interview on Wednesday with the conservative commentator Laura Ingraham, Yonhap news agency, but not confirmed by the State Department.
Mr. Pompeo did not specify who he would meet or, Yonhap said the meeting would be in New York. The U.S. aims to have the summit "before too long, hopefully early in the next year," Mr. Pompeo said.
Mr. Pompeo said that during his visit to Pyongyang on Oct. 7, North Korean Mr. Kim said, "Mr. weekend. South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in September the North was willing to allow inspection of its Punggye-ri testing site.
North Korea has not conducted a missile launch or bomb test since Messrs. Trump and Kim puts in June, and Pyongyang has a nuclear facility. However, the North has continued to produce missiles, according to satellite imagery, and has not dismantled any of its estimated dozens of nuclear weapons, U.S. officials have said.
Mr. Pompeo said in the interview that the Trump administration is "still happy that they have been conducted a long time ago and have not launched a missile in an awfully long time. But there's a lot of work which remains. "
Mr. Pompeo said that Mr. Kim has made clear his "intention to denuclearize and we'll do everything we can to help him in this way."
South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said in a meeting between the US and South Korean militaries in Washington on Dec. 1 to help enable diplomatic talks.
Stephen Biegun, the State Department's special representative for North Korea, traveled to Seoul from Oct. 29 to 30, meeting with representatives of the South Korean Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Unification.
State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters Tuesday that the US and South Korea "are closely coordinating on our joint approach, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
