WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump used Twitter to confirm a secret meeting between CIA Director Mike Pompeo and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, writing on Wednesday morning that talks between the two men “went very smoothly” and “a good relationship was formed.”
Trump tweeted that the meeting in North Korea was a prelude to a summit between himself and Kim by early June.
Pompeo is Trump’s nominee to become secretary of state, but a divided Senate oversight committee is expected to decline to recommend his confirmation. However, the full Senate, under Republicans’ control, still is expected to approve him.
The president has long derided Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and warned the previous secretary of state whom he fired, Rex Tillerson, against negotiating with North Korea. Since he decided last month to pursue talks himself, however, his rhetoric has become more hopeful and conciliatory.
The meeting with Pompeo was first reported on Tuesday night by the Washington Post. In 2014, President Obama’s CIA director, James Clapper, traveled to North Korea to win the release of two prisoners held by the regime, but he did not meet with Kim. In 2000, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with Kim’s father and predecessor. Kim Jong Il