MIKE POMPEO/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Citing insufficient progress on the issue of denuclearization, President Donald Trump nixed plans for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to make what would have been his fourth visit to North Korea Friday, canceling next week’s trip just one day after it was announced by Pompeo…Pompeo had said Thursday [8-23-28] newly announced special representative to North Korea, Stephen Biegun, would be joining him on the trip to Pyongyang. The top US diplomat and Andrew Kim, the head of the CIA’s Korea Mission Center, were seen entering the West Wing of the White House on Friday afternoon just hours before Trump posted the series of tweets. Pompeo was in the room when Trump sent his tweet canceling the trip, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told CNN. National security adviser John Bolton, who just returned from an overseas trip, was on speakerphone, Sanders said. A senior diplomatic source told CNN that State Department officials were ‘briefing allies’ embassies about their objectives for the trip like 10 minutes before’ the trip was called off.”
–Zachary Cohen and Jeremy Diamond, “Trump says Pompeo won’t go to North Korea, criticizes denuclearization progress,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, August 24, 2018 2:03 am