News of CIA director Mike Pompeo's secret trip to meet Kim Jong Un in North Korea comes on the same day multiple lawmakers indicated they won't approve his bid to become secretary of state

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April 18, 2018 2:45 AM

Pompeo's trip was meant to lay the groundwork for an upcoming meeting between President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader.

CIA director Mike Pompeo reportedly made a secret trip to North Korea during Easter weekend, several news outlets reported on Tuesday.
Sources told The Washington Post Pompeo met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Pompeo's trip was meant to lay the groundwork for an upcoming meeting between President Donald Trump and Kim.
The news came on the same day that some Senate lawmakers indicated they would not vote "yes" on Pompeo's Senate confirmation to become secretary of state.

CIA director Mike Pompeo made a secret trip to North Korea during Easter weekend to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to a Washington Post report Tuesday.

Pompeo visited North Korea as part of President Donald Trump's advance envoy to lay the groundwork for the highly-anticipated talks between Trump and Kim, during which the two leaders are expected to discuss the regime's nuclear weapons program, two sources familiar with the situation said to The Post.

Pompeo, who was tapped by Trump to become the next US secretary of state, made the trip shortly after he was nominated, The Post reported.

News of Pompeo's trip comes amid Trump's comments that US dignitaries were already in discussions with North Korean officials at "very high levels."

"We've also started talking to North Korea directly," Trump said on Tuesday, according to Jennifer Jacobs, Bloomberg's White House reporter. "We have had direct talks at very high levels, extremely high levels with North Korea."

That revelation from Trump came on the same day that several US lawmakers indicated they would not vote "yes" on Pompeo's nomination to become secretary of state.

US officials have previously met with their North Korean counterparts over the years, but Pompeo's meeting with Kim would be the first of its kind since secretary of state Madeleine Albright held discussions with former leader Kim Jong Il in 2000.

The exact location and date of the proposed Trump-Kim summit is not yet clear, but Trump reportedly said it could happen by early June. The president said five locations were being considered, but added that the US is not one of them.

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