Washington (CNN) The United States and North Korea have been holding secret, direct talks to prepare for a summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, a sign that planning for the highly anticipated meeting is progressing, several administration officials familiar with the discussions tell CNN.

Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo and a team at the CIA have been working through intelligence back-channels to make preparations for the summit, the officials said. American and North Korean intelligence officials have spoken several times and have even met in a third country, with a focus on nailing down a location for the talks.

Although the North Korean regime has not publicly declared its invitation by Kim Jong Un to meet with Trump, which was conveyed last month by a South Korean envoy, several officials say North Korea has since acknowledged Trump's acceptance, and Pyongyang has reaffirmed Kim is willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

The North Koreans are pushing to have the meeting in their capital, Pyongyang, the sources said, although it is unclear whether the White House would be willing to hold the talks there. The Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar has also been raised as a possible location, the sources said.

The talks between intelligence officials are laying the groundwork for a meeting between Pompeo and his North Korea counterpart, the head of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, in advance of the leaders' summit. Once a location is agreed upon the officials said that the date will be set and the agenda discussed in greater detail.

Read More</s>In this April 5, 2009 image made from KRT video, a rocket is lifted off from its launch pad in Musudan-ri, North Korea. (AP)

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea announced plans Friday to blast a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket, a surprise move that could jeopardize a weeks-old agreement with the U.S. exchanging food aid for nuclear concessions.

The North agreed to a moratorium on long-range launches as part of the deal with Washington, but argues that satellite launches are part of a peaceful space program that is exempt from international disarmament obligations. The U.S., South Korea and other critics say the rocket technology overlaps with belligerent uses and condemn the satellite program as a disguised way of testing military missiles in defiance of a U.N. ban.

The launch is to take place three years after a similar launch in April 2009 drew widespread censure.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the announcement of the launch "highly provocative."

"Such a missile launch would pose a threat to regional security and would also be inconsistent with North Korea's recent undertaking to refrain from long-range missile launches," she said in a statement, urging Pyongyang to abide by its international obligations.

Japan urged Pyongyang to abandon the launch, calling it a violation of a U.N. resolution restricting the North's use of ballistic missile technology, and South Korea's Foreign Ministry called the plans a "grave provocation."

Liftoff will take between April 12 and 16 from a west coast launch pad in North Phyongan province, a spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology said in a statement carried by state media.

He said the launch would be part of celebrations marking the April 15 centenary of the birth of North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung.

"This is a grand event that shows off our national power," Pyongyang officer worker Choe Myong Suk told The Associated Press as rain fell in the North Korean capital Friday. "We can say that our country has proudly joined the ranks of developed countries."

North Koreans often repeat official state slogans when asked their views of current events.

Pyongyang's announcement comes as North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong Un, seeks to solidify his rule of the nation of 24 million people in the wake of father Kim Jong Il's death in December.

"The window for the launch is important in terms of the domestic politics of the North," said Daniel Pinkston, an expert on North Korea's weapons programs at the International Crisis Group. He said the launch serves to underline North Korea's military capabilities and reinforce Kim's fledgling rule.

Kim Jong Il began grooming the son to take over as leader after suffering a stroke in 2008. Footage aired Friday on state-run TV showed Kim Jong Un observing the 2009 rocket launch.

Such a launch aims to reinforce unity at home by provoking new tensions that will allow its leadership to portray the country as beset by hostile forces. A third nuclear test could be next, Pinkston said.

The launch also jeopardizes the recent food aid deal with the U.S., he said.

"I can't see how the U.S. is going to deliver this food aid," he said. "I think this is going to kill it."

North Korea agreed last month to suspend uranium enrichment, place a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, and to allow back U.N. weapons inspectors in exchange for much-needed food aid. Uranium enrichment is one way to make atomic bombs. In the past North Korea has also weaponized plutonium for nuclear devices.

North Korea called the April 2009 launch a bid to send a communications satellite into space, but it was widely viewed in the West as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting North Korea from engaging in nuclear and ballistic missile activity.

Shortly after the 2009 launch from an east coast station, Pyongyang declared that it would abandon six-nation negotiations on offering the North aid and concessions in exchange for nuclear disarmament. And weeks later, North Korea tested a nuclear device, the second in three years — earning the regime tightened U.N. sanctions.

Japan's Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said going ahead with the launch would harm peace and stability in the region. Japan has set up a crisis management task force to monitor the situation and is cooperating with the U.S. and South Korea.

North Korea is proud of its nuclear and missile programs, which it claims are necessary to protect itself against the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea and has more troops as well as nuclear-powered warships in the region.

"This is an event that shows how strong our self-reliant economy is," Pyongyang resident Song Jong Chol told AP. "This is the happiest of happy occasions."

North Korea and the United States fought on opposite sides of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953. They have never signed a peace treaty.

North Korea is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight "primitive" atomic bombs, according to scientist Siegfried Hecker of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. Pyongyang also announced in 2009 that it would begin enriching uranium, and revealed the facility to Hecker in November 2010.

Scientists believe North Korea is working toward building a device small enough to mount on a rocket capable of reaching the United States. The same rocket used for a satellite could be used for a long-range missile.

The North Korean space committee spokesman said a Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite designed to orbit the earth will be mounted on an Unha-3 rocket from the Sohae station in Cholsan County. He called it a "working" satellite that was an improvement over two previous "experimental" satellites.

The spokesman said North Korea would abide by international regulations governing the launch of satellites for "peaceful" scientific purposes and that an orbit was chosen to avoid showering debris on neighboring nations.

North Korea provided similar notice in 2009, but launched the rocket over Japan despite warnings from world leaders that it would set the nation on a path of isolation.

In 2009, North Korea said an experimental communications satellite mounted on a rocket was sent into space playing "Song of Gen. Kim Il Sung" and "Song of Gen. Kim Jong Il."

The U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command and South Korea's Defense Ministry said no satellite made it into orbit.

South Korea is due to host the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul in two weeks, and North Korea's nuclear program was expected to be discussed on the sidelines of the gathering of world leaders.

Associated Press writers Kim Kwang Hyon and Pak Won Il in Pyongyang; Jean H. Lee, Stephen Wright and Sam Kim in Seoul, South Korea; and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.</s>North Korea is willing to talk to the United States about denuclearization, a senior U.S. official said Sunday.

These are the first tangible signs that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is still willing to meet with President Donald Trump since the North first proposed the summit last month.

Trump has said he wants to meet with Kim before the end of May. Details on the talks are still unclear, including the exact agenda and place.

But U.S. officials have said there have been secret contacts between Washington and Pyongyang.

Trump has consistently called for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

In the past, North Korea pledged to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for food aid and easing economic sanctions. Those promises were always broken.</s>The United States and North Korea are reportedly holding secret, high-level talks ahead of a planned meeting next month between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

According to CNN, the talks are being led by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Mike Pompeo, using intelligence back channels, and his team has met North Korean officials in a third country.

CNN cited sources saying that Ulan Bator in Mongolia has been suggested as a possible neutral location for the meeting, although the North Koreans have been pushing to hold the talks in their capital, Pyongyang.

The talks will lay the groundwork for a meeting between Mr Pompeo and his North Korea counterpart, who is the head of the Reconnaissance General Bureau.

The North has said it is willing to hold “candid” talks with the United States to bring about denuclearisation of the peninsula and normalise ties, although Mr Trump has called for more concrete steps toward denuclearisation before the meeting takes place.

The proposed meeting has been read as a sign of easing tensions, but it is not clear what will emerge from a meeting between the two leaders.

The lines of dialogue between North and South Korea were reopened in January for the first time in two years, culminating in the North Koreans attending the Winter Olympics.

North Korea has been under heavy UN Security Council sanctions since it staged a series of nuclear tests and missile launches in defiance of international pressure to abandon its atomic programme.

Mr Pompeo is currently awaiting confirmation as secretary of state in the coming weeks. A trusted adviser of Mr Trump, Mr Pompeo will assume responsibility for the diplomatic preparations for the talks once he is confirmed by the senate as secretary of state.

Matthew Pottinger, the top Asia official on the National Security Council, is also involved in co-ordinating the talks, and John Bolton, who will take over the role as Mr Trump’s principal adviser on national security, is also expected to play a major role in planning the summit meeting.

The back-channel talks are the latest move in a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at resolving the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula.

South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, is due to meet Mr Kim in the joint security area of Panmunjom on April 27th for what will be only the third summit between the two Koreas since the peninsula was divided at the end of the Korean War (1950-53).

The Chinese government has briefed the White House after a meeting in Beijing between Mr Kim and President Xi Jinping late last month. That visit was Mr Kim’s first outside North Korea since he took over the leadership following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in 2011.

In a separate report, a US think-tank says North Korea may have started testing a new reactor.

The Institute for Science and International Security said the experimental light water reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex was showing signs of activity.

Pyongyang has not carried out any nuclear or missile tests since November.</s>SEOUL, April 8 (UPI) -- South Korea's top office expressed optimism on reports of contact between Washington and Pyongyang, to arrange a summit between their leaders in May.

A senior presidential official told Yonhap Sunday that if direct contact is being initiated between the United States and North Korea, Seoul sees it as a positive signal.

The liberal Moon Jae-in administration has been pushing for dialogue with the North, in efforts to achieve denuclearization as well as the establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The official's remarks came after CNN reported that Washington has been holding "secret, direct talks" to prepare for the upcoming summit between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Quoting various U.S. officials, the report said a team at the Central Intelligence Agency, led by its Director Mike Pompeo, has been working through back-channels to make arrangements for the high-profile talks.

According to the report, American officials are said to have spoken several times with their North Korean counterparts, and even met up with them up to three times to discuss preparations.

The U.S. President, last month, told South Korean presidential envoys that he accepted Kim's invitation for talks on denuclearization and would hold the talks in May.

Since then, the North Korean leader has reaffirmed his commitment to discussing denuclearization as well as his willingness to hold summit talks with the South Korean and U.S. presidents.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is continuing to pressure the North regarding its flagrant violations of human rights, the Voice of America reported Sunday.

The U.S. broadcasted quoted Katina Adams, spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, who said Washington will continue to exert pressure on Pyongyang in order to ensure it respects the basic freedom and human rights of its citizens.

She said the U.S. is deeply concerned about the state of North Korean citizens' well-being.

Regarding scepticism in Washington on the possibility of the North dismantling its nukes, Adams said the North Korean leader has asserted his willingness to denuclearize and to refrain from additional nuclear and missile test, and that he understands South Korea-U.S. joint military drills will continue as scheduled.</s>US President Donald Trump said the United States is ready to solve the North Korean "problem" without China if necessary.

"North Korea is looking for trouble," Trump wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. "If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A."

The warning from Trump comes as Russia admitted it held concerns that the US would attack after North Korea warned it had US bases in nuclear sights.

Trump launched a missile strike on Syria late Thursday while meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The move was widely interpreted as a warning to North Korea as well as retaliation for the Damascus regime's suspected sarin attack against civilians in a rebel-held town in Syria.

"I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the US will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!" Trump wrote in an earlier tweet.

The United States has deployed a naval strike group - which includes the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson - to the Korean peninsula in a show of force.

Trump has previously threatened unilateral action against Pyongyang if China, the North's sole major ally, fails to help curb its neighbour's nuclear ambitions.

Turnbull urges China to step in as tensions heat up

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has again urged China to exercise its "undoubted influence" over the North Korean regime, to urge it to pull back as tensions in the area heat up.

America has sent an aircraft carrier loaded with fighter jets towards the hermit nation, and the North Koreans have responded by warning they're ready for war.

"The reckless and dangerous conduct of the North Korean regime is threatening peace and stability not just in the region but the whole world," Mr Turnbull told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday.

"We continue to call on China to exercise the undoubted influence it has over the North Korean regime to pull it back from further reckless conduct."

He discussed a wide range of regional security issues with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi when they met on Monday.

Australia and other UN countries continue to apply sanctions to North Korea.

Five-time world snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan urged Trump to "chill bruv" in response to a tweet about North Korea.

'The Rocket' weighed in with his opinions on the matter in a series of tweets.

"China don't need the USA.. you need China more than they need you," he advised the president.

"I wouldn't do business with the USA all you do is have wars.

"Donald you need to chill bruv. Let's not have another Iraq.. let people run there [sic] own country. USA ain't got it great.. pure debt."

O'Sullivan added that "people can change the world".

Russia said it hoped forthcoming talks in Moscow with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would be productive, but said it was extremely worried the United States might decide to unilaterally attack North Korea.

North Korea is emerging as one of the most pressing foreign policy problems for US President Donald Trump.

Pyongyang has conducted five nuclear tests and is working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles that can reach the United States.

A US official told Reuters over the weekend that a US Navy strike group led by a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was steaming towards the western Pacific as a show of force.

The Russian foreign ministry, in a statement ahead of his visit, said it was concerned about many aspects of US foreign policy, including on Libya, Yemen and Syria, but said it was particularly concerned about North Korea.

"We are really worried about what Washington has in mind for North Korea after it hinted at the possibility of a unilateral military scenario," the statement said.

"It's important to understand how that would tally with collective obligations on de-nuclearising the Korean peninsula, something that is underpinned in U.N. Security Council resolutions."</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has appeared to endorse closer post-Olympics engagement between South and North Korea with an eye to eventual U.S.-North Korean talks, but has agreed with Seoul that sanctions must be intensified to push Pyongyang to negotiate an end to its nuclear weapons program.

The prospect of negotiations comes after months of tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, in which U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traded insults and threats while the U.N. tightened sanctions.

 Speaking on his way home from the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea and the first high-level North-South talks in years, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Washington would keep up its "maximum pressure campaign" against Pyongyang, but at the same time would be open to talks without pre-conditions.

 “No pressure comes off until they are actually doing something that the alliance believes represents a meaningful step toward denuclearization,” Pence was quoted as saying by the Washington Post. “So the maximum pressure campaign is going to continue and intensify. But if you want to talk, we’ll talk.”

 Trump and his senior aides have given conflicting signals in the past year over the potential for diplomatic engagement to resolve the crisis over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons capable of hitting the United States. 

 During his 2016 election campaign Trump proposed a major shift in U.S. policy by saying he was willing to talk personally to Kim.

 Repeated missile tests by North Korea and its biggest ever nuclear detonation last September led Trump to dub Kim "little rocket man" and warn that he might have no choice but to totally destroy his country. 

 Officials have since said the administration has discussed the possibility of preventative strikes to press North Korea to give up its weapons program, raising fears of a catastrophic new Korean War.

 At the same time, Washington has repeatedly held out the prospect of talks with North Korea, but stressed that they must have the ultimate aim of it giving up its weapons program, something Pyongyang has repeatedly rejected.

 U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has at times appeared at odds with the White House in his advocacy of dialogue and in October, Trump publicly admonished him not to waste his time trying to negotiate.

 In December, Tillerson said the United States was “ready to talk any time North Korea would like to talk" without pre-conditions, but was quickly slapped down by the White House, which said Pyongyang would have to improve its behavior first. Tillerson subsequently urged a "sustained cessation" of weapons testing to allow for talks.

 Trump's hardline approach softened after the first North-South talks in two years in January and he again expressed a willingness to hold direct talks with Kim. 

 Tillerson said last month Washington was supportive of the North-South dialogue, even though North Korea had a record of seeking to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies through "charm offensives."

 He said he was confident the sides would eventually get to the negotiating table, but if Kim wanted to talk "he's got to tell me he wants to talk. We're not going to chase him."

 Tillerson again said on Monday it was up to North Korea to decide when it was ready to engage in a "sincere" and "meaningful" way and that it was too early to judge whether a new diplomatic process was underway.

 "They know what has to be on the table for conversations," he said.

 

 (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Andrew Hay)</s>– North Korea has confirmed directly to the Trump administration that it is willing to negotiate with the United States over potential denuclearization, administration officials said Sunday.

The confirmation offers the administration greater assurances that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is committed to a potential meeting with President Donald Trump by the end of next month.

“The U.S. has confirmed that Kim Jong Un is willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” an administration official said.

South Korean emissaries, in a visit to the White House last month, had presented Kim’s invitation to meet with Trump, who quickly agreed.

But Pyongyang has been silent publicly since then about a summit, even as Kim visited Beijing earlier this month in his first visit outside North Korea since assuming control of the country after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in 2011. the Wall Street Journal was the first to report that the North has confirmed the offer to the United States.

Trump said last month that he was willing to have the historic meeting with Kim and instructed his aides to arrange it before the end of May. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to make a two-day visit with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s resort near Palm Beach, Florida, to coordinate strategy between the allies. South Korean President Moon Jae-in plans to meet with Kim at the end of April in the Demilitarized Zone between the North and South.

White House officials have not said where the Trump-Kim summit will be held. The agenda of the meeting is not yet known, and North Korea has not been clear about what steps it is willing to take to move toward denuclearization. During previous negotiations under different U.S. administrations, the North has agreed to freeze its nuclear weapons program in exchange for the lifting of international economic sanctions, only to violate the agreement by testing more weapons.</s>North Korea has confirmed directly to the Trump administration that it is willing to negotiate with the United States over potential denuclearization, administration officials said Sunday.

The confirmation offers the administration greater assurances that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is committed to a potential meeting with President Donald Trump by the end of next month.

"The U.S. has confirmed that Kim Jong Un is willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," an administration official said.

South Korean emissaries, in a visit to the White House last month, had presented Kim's invitation to meet with Trump, who quickly agreed.

But Pyongyang has been silent publicly since then about a summit, even as Kim visited Beijing earlier this month in his first visit outside North Korea since assuming control of the country after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in 2011. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report that the North has confirmed the offer to the United States.

Trump said last month that he was willing to have the historic meeting with Kim and instructed his aides to arrange it before the end of May. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to make a two-day visit with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the president's resort near Palm Beach, Florida, to coordinate strategy between the allies. South Korean President Moon Jae-in plans to meet with Kim at the end of April in the demilitarized zone between the North and South.

White House officials have not said where the Trump-Kim summit will be held. The agenda of the meeting is not yet known, and North Korea has not been clear about what steps it is willing to take to move toward denuclearization. During previous negotiations under different U.S. administrations, the North has agreed to freeze its nuclear weapons program in exchange for the lifting of international economic sanctions, only to violate the agreement by testing more weapons.

The Washington Post's John Hudson contributed to this report.</s>WASHINGTON — North Korea’s government has communicated with the United States to say that leader Kim Jong Un is ready to discuss his nuclear weapons program with President Trump, officials said Sunday, increasing the likelihood that the unprecedented summit will actually occur.

The confirmation from Pyongyang directly, rather than from third countries like South Korea, has created more confidence within Trump’s administration about the wisdom of holding such a meeting, as U.S. officials make secretive preparations.

Trump took his own administration and other countries by surprise last month when he accepted an unusual offer from Kim to hold a meeting. The North had conveyed the invitation to a visiting delegation from South Korea, which in turn traveled to Washington and relayed the message to Trump.

The president said yes to the meeting on the spot, even though the U.S. had not yet heard directly from North Korea about Kim’s intentions. The U.S. later heard from other countries, including China, where Kim paid a rare visit, that the North was serious about the offer.

Still, North Korea’s government has not said anything publicly at all about a meeting with Trump, and the lack of known contact between Pyongyang and Washington about the meeting has fueled further speculation about the seriousness of Kim’s offer.

A Trump administration official said Sunday that the U.S. had “confirmed that Kim Jong Un is willing to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
Several administration officials say the governments of the United States and North Korea have begun secret, direct talks with each other.