WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump dispatched CIA Director Mike Pompeo to North Korea to meet with its leader, Kim Jong Un, over Easter weekend to lay the groundwork for a meeting between Kim and Trump, people briefed on the trip said Tuesday.
The top-secret meeting between one of Trump's most trusted emissaries and the authoritarian head of a rogue state was part of an effort to prepare for direct talks between Trump and Kim about North Korea's nuclear weapons program, two people told The Washington Post on condition of anonymity because of the highly classified nature of the talks.
The Associated Press and New York Times also later reported the revelations.
The clandestine mission, which has not previously been reported, came soon after Pompeo was nominated to be secretary of state.
During his confirmation hearing last week, Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he was "optimistic" the U.S. could set conditions for talks between Trump and Kim, eventually leading to "a diplomatic outcome" that "America and the world so desperately need."
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort Tuesday, Trump appeared to allude to the face-to-face meeting between Kim and Pompeo when he said the U.S. has had direct talks with North Korea "at very high levels." The president didn't elaborate.
Trump said he would sit down with Kim probably in early June, if not sooner.
Pompeo has taken the lead on the administration's negotiations with Pyongyang. His meeting with Kim marks the highest-level meeting between the two countries since 2000, when then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with Kim Jong Il, the current leader's father, to discuss strategic issues. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper visited the country in 2014 to secure the release of two American captives and met with a lower-level intelligence official.
The CIA declined to comment. The White House declined to comment as well, saying it would not discuss the CIA director's travels. Diplomats at the North Korean mission to the United Nations in New York, which is the main conduit for messages between Washington and Pyongyang, declined to comment.
About a week after Pompeo's trip to North Korea, U.S. officials said people there had confirmed that Kim was willing to negotiate about potential denuclearization, a sign that both sides had opened a new communications channel ahead of the planned Trump-Kim summit and that the administration believed North Korea was serious about holding a summit.
"We have had direct talks at very high levels, extremely high levels with North Korea," Trump said Tuesday during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Trump did not elaborate. The United States has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, but U.S. diplomats have visited and Washington has used several quiet channels to communicate with Pyongyang.
KOREAN TALKS
Trump also said Tuesday that he has given "my blessing" to planned discussions between South Korea and North Korea about bringing a formal end to the Korean War, as fast-moving diplomatic developments surrounding nuclear-armed North Korea came into view.
"North Korea is coming along," Trump said. "South Korea is meeting and has plans to meet to see if they can end the war, and they have my blessing on that."
Hostilities in the Korean War, which involved the United States, ended 65 years ago, but a peace treaty was never signed. A top South Korean official was quoted Tuesday as saying that a formal end to hostilities was on the agenda for a summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in next week in the Demilitarized Zone between the countries.
Opening a two-day summit with Abe, Trump took some credit for the developments related to North Korea, saying, "Without us and without me, in particular, I guess you would have to say, they wouldn't be discussing anything."
The U.S. has traditionally sought to resolve the dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons program before addressing the North's demands for a peace treaty, which the isolated, authoritarian nation views as a means to ensuring its security. The U.S. retains nearly 30,000 troops in South Korea to deter North Korean aggression. The leaders of the two Koreas are to meet April 27 on the southern side of the tense Demilitarized Zone that separates their countries.
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The first time Trump hosted Abe at Mar-a-Lago, North Korea conducted its first missile test of Trump's administration, and the two delivered a joint statement denouncing the launch.
This time, Abe is seeking reassurance from Trump that security threats to Japan won't be overlooked at any U.S.-North Korea summit.
Abe said Tuesday that he had secured a commitment from Trump to raise with Kim the issue of Japanese abductees, one of Abe's top policy priorities. He told Trump that he was grateful for the commitment.
Pyongyang has acknowledged abducting 13 Japanese, while Tokyo maintains that North Korea abducted 17. Five have been returned to Japan. North Korea says eight others died and denies the remaining four entered its territory. Japan has demanded further investigation.
The U.S. is pushing for the release of three Americans.
TRADE CONCERNS
A widening U.S.-China trade dispute is among the topics that Trump is expected to cover this week during discussions with Abe, who has his own trade complaint with the United States.
Trump's decision not to exempt Japan from new steel and aluminum tariffs has threatened the fond personal relationship the two leaders have forged, on the golf course and over meetings and phone calls.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow called the exemption issue a "key point on the agenda" for the two leaders but said he would not speculate about whether Trump would announce what would be good political news for Abe during the meeting.
Both U.S. and Japanese officials insist that Trump and Abe remain close. U.S. officials stressed that Trump has met with Abe more than any other world leader and that they've been in "constant contact" since Trump accepted Kim's invitation to plan a summit.
Kudlow also told reporters ahead of Abe's arrival that the trade policy is intended to crack down on China, which he accused of being a "first-world economy behaving like a third-world economy."
"And with respect to technology and other matters, they have to start playing by the rules," Kudlow said. "The president emphatically, emphatically supports that view. That is the essence of his policy: Play by the rules or there will be consequences."
Abe's official visit began Tuesday afternoon as an honor cordon of uniformed service members lined the palm-fringed drive to the club. Trump greeted Abe at the red-carpeted door of the mansion as the pair posed for photos ahead of a one-on-one meeting and a group discussion with national security officials about the Kim summit. The president and first lady Melania Trump had dinner with Abe and his wife.
Today, the agenda will broaden to include other issues affecting the Indo-Pacific region, including trade and energy, and Trump said he and Abe would "sneak out" to play a round of golf.
Information for this article was contributed by Jill Colvin, Zeke Miller, Matthew Pennington, Mari Yamaguchi and Ken Moritsugu of The Associated Press and by Shane Harris, Carol D. Leonnig, Greg Jaffe and David Nakamura and Anne Gearan of The Washington Post.
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