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Trump Confirms CIA Director Made Secret Trip To North Korea To Meet Kim Jong Un

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Ryan Pickrell China/Asia Pacific Reporter
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President Donald Trump confirmed on Twitter Wednesday that CIA Director Mike Pompeo secretly met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in North Korea earlier this month.

“Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week,” the president tweeted, “Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of summit are being worked out now.”

“Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!” Trump added, commenting specifically on Pyongyang’s purported willingness to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

The president’s confirmation follows a shocking revelation from The Washington Post that not only are U.S. officials in direct contact with North Korean officials, as CNN previously reported, but Pompeo traveled to the rogue regime and met with Kim. The meeting was “part of an effort to lay the groundwork” for Trump’s meeting with Kim.

Kim was reportedly “personable and well prepared,” an administration official familiar with the meeting told CNN’s Will Ripley. The main problem in discussions was finding a suitable venue for the upcoming Trump-Kim summit. If the meeting takes place, the president will become the first sitting American president to sit down with a North Korean leader.

Trump has signaled that he supports the North and South’s efforts to pursue permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula, but he and others in the administration has stressed that North Korea must abandon its nuclear weapons.

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