The White House announced Monday that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be leaving for North Korea on July 5, marking his third visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"To continue the ongoing and important work of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, Secretary Pompeo will be leaving for North Korea on July 5th to meet with the North Korean leader and his team," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters at a Monday briefing.
Pompeo previously visited North Korea in early April and then again for a second time in early May when he was returning to the US with three Americans who'd been held hostage in the country. The 54-year-old California native will also meet with both Japanese and South Korean officials from July 7 to 8 while in Tokyo.
The White House has also remarked that the it's continuing to make progress on the matter of denuclearizing North Korea. Pompeo is also expected to, possibly, secure the remains of US soldiers killed during the Korean War.
Meanwhile, nearly three weeks after US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in Singapore, the Washington rumor mill is spouting talk that the two might be meeting up again soon.
The second round of talks, speculation has it, would be held in New York this September as world leaders begin to trickle into the Big Apple for the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, AXIOS reported Monday, citing unnamed US officials.
But before the bubbly can be brought out to celebrate the occasion, officials told the outlet that North Korea would have to show some serious progress toward fulfilling its denuclearization promises.
White House national security adviser John Bolton told reporters that the Trump administration is "very well aware of North Korea's patterns of behavior over decades of negotiating with the United States," CBS News reported.
"We know exactly what the risks are, of them using negotiations to drag out the length of time they have to continue their nuclear, chemical, biological weapons programs, ballistic missiles," Bolton continued. "The president would like to see these discussions move promptly to get a resolution."
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