CIA Director Pompeo Reportedly Made Secret Trip To North Korea : The Two-Way : NPR

Secretary of State-designate Mike Pompeo pauses while speaking during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on confirmation last week on Capitol Hill in Washington. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption

Secretary of State-designate Mike Pompeo pauses while speaking during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on confirmation last week on Capitol Hill in Washington.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo made a secret visit to North Korea earlier this month to meet with leader Kim Jong Un — a trip meant to pave the way for possible direct talks between Kim and President Trump, according to multiple reports quoting unnamed White House officials.

The officials spoke about the clandestine meeting, which reportedly took place over Easter weekend, on condition of anonymity. However, the president, speaking at a joint news conference Tuesday with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, said the U.S. and North Korea have had direct talks "at very high levels."

Trump said that he expected to sit down with the North Korean leader in early June, if not earlier, and that the White House was considering five possible sites for such a meeting.

The Washington Post, which first reported the Pompeo visit, notes, "Pompeo has taken the lead on the administration's negotiations with Pyongyang. His meeting with Kim marks the highest-level contact between the two countries since 2000, when then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with Kim Jong Il, the current leader's late father, to discuss strategic issues. Then-Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. visited the country in 2014 to secure the release of two American captives and met with a lower-level intelligence official."

Pompeo, who is awaiting confirmation to succeed Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, "has been dealing with North Korean representatives through a channel that runs between the C.I.A. and its North Korean counterpart, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, according to other officials. And he has been in close touch with the director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, Suh Hoon, who American officials said brokered Mr. Kim's invitation to Mr. Trump," The New York Times reports.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday that the two leaders have not yet spoken directly.

If Trump and Kim do meet, it would be the first direct talks between a U.S. and North Korean leader. The U.S. played a key role in the bitterly fought Korea War that ended in an armistice – not a peace treaty – in 1953. North and South Korea have technically been in a state of war ever since.

Given his harsh words for Pyongyang and its leader, Kim, since taking office — including his threat to respond to Pyongyang's missile tests with "fire and fury" — Trump signaled a more conciliatory note in the news conference with Abe.

"I really believe there's a lot of good will. They do respect us. We are respectful of them," the president said.

"They do have my blessing to discuss the end of the war," he said. "Subject to a deal, they have my blessing."

For his part, Abe, whose country has been a frequent target of North Korea's ire and a would-be target of its ballistic missiles, praised Trump for his "unwavering determination in addressing the challenge of North Korea."