Mike Pompeo, the director of the CIA, had a secret meeting with Kim Jong-un in North Korea during Easter, according to US reports.
Two people with direct knowledge of the trip told the Washington Post that Pompeo met the North Korean leader over Easter as part of an effort to lay the groundwork for direct talks between Donald Trump and Kim.
The mission came soon after Pompeo was nominated to be secretary of state. The CIA has not confirmed the meeting, which would be the highest level meeting between the two countries since 2000, when then secretary of state Madeleine Albright met Kim Jong-il, Kim’s father, in Pyongyang. It would also mark the first time the previously reclusive Kim Jong-un has met a senior western official.
Asked about the report, a White House spokesman said: “We do not comment on the CIA director’s travel.”
The New York Times also reported Pompeo’s secret trip to North Korea over the Easter holiday, which fell this year at the end of March and beginning of April.
A few hours before the Washington Post report was published, Trump told the press about an unspecified high-level meeting.