MIKE POMPEO/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “CIA Director Mike Pompeo visited North Korea more than two weeks ago for a secret meeting with leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, sources confirmed to CNN. Pompeo, who is US President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, didn’t take any officials from the White House or State Department with him on the trip, only intelligence officials, one source said Tuesday [4-17-18]. The White House declined to comment on Pompeo’s visit, which took place around April 1 and was first reported by The Washington Post. The Post reported that Pompeo went as Trump’s envoy to lay the groundwork for direct talks between Trump and Kim about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. The two leaders are set to meet in late May or early June, in what would be the first face-to-face encounter between a sitting US President and a North Korean leader. After ordering a barrage of missile tests last year, which antagonized the international community, Kim has started engaging in diplomatic discussions over his nuclear program.”
-Jeff Zeleny, Elise Labott and Ben Westcott, “CIA Director Mike Pompeo secretly met with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, April 18, 2018 5:10 am