US secretary of state Mike Pompeo reveals Kim Jong-un meeting in Pyongyang

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has revealed he held a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his trip to Pyongyang.

The trip was intended to advance stalled talks around the dismantling of North Korea‘s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programme.

It is also to help set up a second summit between President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader.

Shortly after arriving in North Korea following the visit, Mr Pompeo posted a photo on Twitter of himself walking along with Mr Kim, saying: “Had a good trip to #Pyongyang to meet with Chairman Kim. We continue to make progress on agreements made at Singapore Summit. Thanks for hosting me and my team @StateDept.”

The secretary of state began a three-day tour of east Asia on Saturday when he met Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, in Tokyo.

This is Mr Pompeo’s fourth trip to North Korea – and his second meeting with Kim Jong-un – and it would have happened sooner but was cancelled on the president’s orders over a lack of progress in denuclearisation talks.

However the president has talked up his administration’s success in bringing North Korea into the diplomatic fold. Mr Trump told the UN last month: “We have already seen a number of encouraging measures that few could have imagined a short time ago.”

Just 12 months ago the president was calling the rogue state leader “little rocket man” and suggesting the US would have no choice but to “completely destroy North Korea”.

In a sign of the remarkable change in rhetoric in the past year, Mr Abe suggested he could follow the US chief’s lead in meeting with Mr Kim to “break the shell of distrust”.