WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump revealed on Tuesday that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on his way to Pyongyang to prepare for Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and expressed hope that three Americans held there would soon be released.

Trump said Pompeo, making his second visit to North Korea in less than six weeks, was expected to arrive “very shortly” and that the two countries had already agreed on a date and location for the unprecedented summit, though he stopped short of providing details.

While Trump said it would be a “great thing” if the three American detainees were freed, Pompeo, speaking to reporters en route to Pyongyang, said he had not received a commitment for their release but hoped North Korea would “do the right thing.”

Their release could signal an effort by Kim to set a more positive tone for the summit following his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut Pyongyang’s nuclear bomb test site.

While Kim would be giving up the last of his remaining American prisoners, whom North Korea has often used in the past as bargaining chips with the United States, a release could also be aimed at pressuring Trump to make concessions of his own in his bid to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear arsenal, something it has not signaled a willingness to do.

“Plans are being made, relationships are building,” Trump said of the planned summit during remarks at the White House that were otherwise focused on his decision to pull the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

“Hopefully, a deal will happen. And with the help of China, South Korea and Japan, a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone,” Trump added.

Pompeo made a secret visit to North Korea over the Easter weekend, becoming the first U.S. official known to have met Kim, to lay the groundwork for the planned summit. The meeting occurred before Pompeo’s nomination as secretary of state had been confirmed.

Trump suggested that dropping out of the Iran nuclear accord, which he has frequently denounced as a bad deal for the United States, would send a “critical message” not just to Tehran but also to Pyongyang. He has demanded that North Korea agree to give up its nuclear arsenal.

“The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them,” Trump said.

FATE OF THREE DETAINEES IN PLAY

Pompeo’s latest trip raised the prospects that the three Korean-American detainees - Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong-chul - could be turned over to him.

Asked whether that could happen, Trump told reporters: “We’ll all soon be finding out. We’ll soon be finding out. It would be a great thing if they are.”

“We’ve been asking for the release of these detainees for 17 months,” Pompeo said. “We’ll talk about it again. It’d be a great gesture if they’d agree to do so.”

Pompeo said he was hoping to finalize the agenda for the summit. He met Kim on this last trip but said he did not know exactly who he would meet this time.

Pompeo said he hoped to be able to outline a set of conditions that would create the opportunity for a historic change in the security relationship with North Korea and added that sanctions would not be lifted until U.S. objectives were met.

“We are not going to head down the path we headed down before,” he said. “We will not relieve sanctions until such time as we have achieved our objectives.”

Pompeo’s latest visit followed talks between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met on April 27 at the heavily fortified demilitarized zone between the countries, the first summit for the two Koreas in over a decade.

The North-South summit produced dramatic images and a declaration of goodwill. But it was short on specific commitments and failed to clear up the question of whether Pyongyang is really willing to give up nuclear missiles that now threaten the United States.

U.S. officials have been pressing Kim to free the three remaining American detainees as a gesture of sincerity before the summit, the first-ever meeting of sitting U.S. and North Korean leaders. Trump and Kim have exchanged insults and threats over the past year but tensions have eased in recent months.

Until now, the only American released by North Korea during Trump’s presidency was Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old university student who returned to the United States in a coma last summer after 17 months of captivity and died days later.

Warmbier’s death escalated U.S.-North Korea tensions, already running high at the time over Pyongyang’s stepped-up missile tests.

The three still being held are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong Chul; Kim Sang-duk, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017, and Kim Hak Song, who also taught at PUST.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that three Americans detained by North Korea have been released and are on their way home with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health,” Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.

Trump said he will greet Pompeo and the Americans when they land at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington at 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) Thursday morning. “Very exciting!” he wrote on Twitter.

The fate of Korean-Americans Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong-chul had been among a number of delicate issues in the run-up to the first-ever meeting of U.S. and North Korean leaders.

Trump sent Pompeo to Pyongyang to accompany the men home following U.S. calls for Kim to free them as a gesture of goodwill and sincerity before the U.S.-North Korea meeting, which is expected to take place in late May or early June.</s>U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in North Korea on Wednesday to finalize details of a historic summit planned between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump announced the mission in Washington on Tuesday just minutes before Pompeo arrived in Japan to refuel before flying on to Pyongyang, and as the president declared he was withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal with another bitter U.S. adversary, Iran.

U.S. officials say Pompeo will also press North Korea for the release of three detained American citizens, whose imminent release Trump has been hinting at. His trip comes just days after North Korea expressed displeasure with Washington for comments suggesting that massive U.S. pressure had pushed Kim to the negotiating table.

Pompeo, who first traveled to North Korea as CIA chief in early April, is only the second sitting secretary of state to visit the reclusive nation with which it is still technically at war. The first was Madeleine Albright in 2000 who went as part of an unsuccessful bid to arrange a meeting between then-President Bill Clinton and Kim's father Kim Jong Il.

"At this very moment, Secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un," Trump said at the White House.

"Plans are being made, relationships are building, hopefully a deal will happen and with the help of China, South Korea and Japan a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone," he said.

Pompeo flew out of Washington under cover of darkness late Monday aboard an Air Force 757 accompanied by a handful of senior aides, a security detail and two journalists: one from The Associated Press and one from The Washington Post, who were given roughly four hours' notice of his departure. The flight arrived Wednesday morning and North Korean officials were on hand to greet the American diplomat.

Pompeo's first trip to Pyongyang over Easter weekend before he was confirmed as secretary of state was a closely held secret. News of it did not emerge just before his Senate confirmation vote less than two weeks ago. Shortly afterward, the White House released photographs of Pompeo and Kim posing for cameras. It was not clear if Kim would meet Pompeo on Wednesday.

Pompeo told reporters aboard his plane that his first visit was to test the North Korean's seriousness of pledges to South Korea on easing tensions. This trip is "to put in place a framework for a successful summit," he said.

Although there were no guarantees that the American prisoners would be freed during Pompeo's visit, U.S. officials said their release would be significant goodwill gesture ahead of the Trump-Kim summit that is expected later this month or in early June.

"I think it would be a great gesture if they would agree to do so," Pompeo said, adding that it would be difficult to hold a leaders' summit if the prisoners remained captive. The three Korean-Americans — Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim — are all accused by the North of anti-state activities.

Trump has said that a time and place for the summit have been decided but has not said where and when it will be. Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang aims to lock down the date and venue for a formal announcement to be made. It came just a day after Kim returned from China, his second trip to the neighboring country in six weeks to meet with President Xi Jinping.

A Trump-Kim meeting seemed a remote possibility just a few months ago when the two leaders were trading threats and insults over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests. But momentum for diplomacy built this year as North and South Korea have moved to ease tensions, including with their own leaders' summit late last month.

In March, Trump unexpectedly accepted an offer of talks from Kim after the North Korean dictator agreed to suspend nuclear and missile tests and discuss "denuclearization." According to South Korea, Kim says he's willing to give up his nukes if the United States commits to a formal end to the Korean War and pledges not to attack the North.

Kim was quoted as saying Monday by China's official news agency Xinhua: "I hope to build mutual trust with the U.S. through dialogue." He added that a political resolution of tensions on the Korean Peninsula and denuclearization should proceed in stages, with all sides moving in concert.

But his exact demands for relinquishing weapons that his nation spent decades building remain unclear. Previous U.S. efforts to negotiate an end to the North's nuclear weapons program failed under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.

Pompeo and officials traveling with him said the Trump administration would not repeat mistakes of the past, which they described as accepting gradual, incremental and long-term disarmament in exchange for immediate benefits. One senior official said Trump and Pompeo were looking for "a bold approach" that would fundamentally alter the security situation.

"We are not going to head back down the path that we headed down before," Pompeo said. "We will not relieve sanctions until such time as we have achieved our objectives. We're not going to do this in small increments where the world is essentially coerced into relieving economic pressure."

Trump has said that withdrawing U.S. forces from South Korea is "not on the table." Some 28,500 U.S. forces are based in the allied nation, a military presence that has been preserved to deter North Korea since the war ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.

After weeks of positive signals, though, North Korea on Sunday dismissed what it called "misleading" claims that Trump's policy of maximum political pressure and sanctions are what drove the North to talks. A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman warned the claims are a "dangerous attempt" to ruin a budding detente on the Korean Peninsula after the summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

"The U.S. is deliberately provoking the DPRK at the time when the situation on the Korean Peninsula is moving toward peace and reconciliation," the spokesman was quoted as saying. DPRK is short for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's formal name.

The statement seemed aimed at strengthening Kim's position going into his meeting with Trump. Pyongyang claims Kim himself is the driver of the current situation and the spokesman said the U.S. should not to interpret Pyongyang's willingness to talk as a sign of weakness.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Three Americans who have been held in North Korea for more than a year have been released and are on their way to the US.

According to The Associated Press, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's plane has left North Korean airspace and had safely landed in Japan.

"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on his way back to the US with three American detainees," President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.

Trump made the announcement on Twitter, noting the former captives – Kim Dong-chul, Kim Sang-duk (also known as Tony Kim) and Kim Hak-song – "seem to be in good health."

"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting," the president tweeted, adding that Pompeo had a "good meeting" with North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

Trump said Pompeo and the detainees will be arriving at Andrews Air Force Base at 2 am Thursday.

"I will be there to greet them. Very exciting!" he said.

One of the hostages, Kim Dong Chul, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, had been held the longest. According to The Associated Press, the former Virginia resident was sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison with hard labor after being convicted of espionage. He reportedly ran a trade and hotel service company in Rason, a special economic zone on North Korea's border with Russia.

North Korean officials arrested last year the other two American hostages, who were both teachers in Pyongyang, when they tried to leave the country at different times. The two detainees hadn't been tried.

The relatives of one of the captives, Tony Kim, are expressing gratitude to "all of those who have worked toward and contributed to his return home."

"Mostly, we thank God for Tony's safe return," they said, adding that the family appreciates "the support and prayers of friends and even strangers during this challenging year."

The news comes as the Trump administration finalizes plans for an historic summit with the North Korean leader.

"For decades, we have been adversaries. Now we are hopeful that we can work together to resolve this conflict," CBS News quoted Pompeo, who added,"There are many challenges along the way."

China's official news agency quoted Kim as saying earlier this week, "I hope to build mutual trust with the US through dialogue."

Kim also said that resolving tensions on the Korean peninsula and denuclearization should move forward in stages, with all sides moving together.

Trump says the time and location of the summit are set. The meeting is expected to happen later this month or in early June.</s>U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was heading to North Korea on Wednesday to finalize details of a planned historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump announced the mission in Washington on Tuesday just minutes before Pompeo arrived in Japan to refuel before flying on to Pyongyang, and as the president declared he was withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal with another bitter U.S. adversary, Iran.

U.S. officials say Pompeo will also press North Korea for the release of three detained American citizens, whose imminent release Trump has been hinting at. His trip comes just days after North Korea expressed displeasure with Washington for comments suggesting that massive U.S. pressure had pushed Kim to the negotiating table.

Pompeo, who first traveled to North Korea as CIA chief in early April, is only the second sitting secretary of state to visit the reclusive nation with which it is still technically at war. The first was Madeleine Albright in 2000 who went as part of an unsuccessful bid to arrange a meeting between then-President Bill Clinton and Kim's father Kim Jong Il.

"At this very moment, Secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un," Trump said at the White House.

"Plans are being made, relationships are building, hopefully a deal will happen and with the help of China, South Korea and Japan a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone," he said.

Pompeo flew out of Washington under cover of darkness late Monday aboard an Air Force 757 accompanied by a handful of senior aides, a security detail and two journalists: one from The Associated Press and one from The Washington Post, who were given roughly four hours notice of his departure.

Pompeo's first trip to Pyongyang over Easter weekend before he was confirmed as secretary of state was a closely held secret. News of it did not emerge just before his Senate confirmation vote less than two weeks ago. Shortly afterward, the White House released photographs of Pompeo and Kim posing for cameras. It was not clear if Kim would meet Pompeo on Wednesday.

Pompeo told reporters aboard his plane that his first visit was to test the North Korean's seriousness of pledges to South Korea on easing tensions. This trip is "to put in place a framework for a successful summit," he said.

Although there were no guarantees that the American prisoners would be freed during Pompeo's visit, U.S. officials said their release would be significant goodwill gesture ahead of the Trump-Kim summit that is expected later this month or in early June.

"I think it would be a great gesture if they would agree to do so," Pompeo said, adding that it would be difficult to hold a leaders' summit if the prisoners remained captive. The three Korean-Americans — Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim — are all accused by the North of anti-state activities.

Trump has said that a time and place for the summit have been decided but has not said where and when it will be. Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang aims to lock down the date and venue for a formal announcement to be made.

His visit will come just a day after Kim returned from China, his second trip to the neighboring country in six weeks to meet with President Xi Jinping.

A Trump-Kim meeting seemed a remote possibility just a few months ago when the two leaders were trading threats and insults over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests. But momentum for diplomacy built this year as North and South Korea have moved to ease tensions, including with their own leaders' summit late last month.

In March, Trump unexpectedly accepted an offer of talks from Kim after the North Korean dictator agreed to suspend nuclear and missile tests and discuss "denuclearization." According to South Korea, Kim says he's willing to give up his nukes if the United States commits to a formal end to the Korean War and pledges not to attack the North.

Kim was quoted as saying Monday by China's official news agency Xinhua: "I hope to build mutual trust with the U.S. through dialogue." He added that a political resolution of tensions on the Korean Peninsula and denuclearization should proceed in stages, with all sides moving in concert.

But his exact demands for relinquishing weapons that his nation spent decades building remain unclear. Previous U.S. efforts to negotiate an end to the North's nuclear weapons program failed under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.

Pompeo and officials traveling with him said the Trump administration would not repeat mistakes of the past, which they described as accepting gradual, incremental and long-term disarmament in exchange for immediate benefits. One senior official said Trump and Pompeo were looking for "a bold approach" that would fundamentally alter the security situation.

"We are not going to head back down the path that we headed down before," Pompeo said. "We will not relieve sanctions until such time as we have achieved our objectives. We're not going to do this in small increments where the world is essentially coerced into relieving economic pressure."

Trump has said that withdrawing U.S. forces from South Korea is "not on the table." Some 28,500 U.S. forces are based in the allied nation, a military presence that has been preserved to deter North Korea since the war ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.

After weeks of positive signals, though, North Korea on Sunday dismissed what it called "misleading" claims that Trump's policy of maximum political pressure and sanctions are what drove the North to talks. A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman warned the claims are a "dangerous attempt" to ruin a budding detente on the Korean Peninsula after the summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

"The U.S. is deliberately provoking the DPRK at the time when the situation on the Korean Peninsula is moving toward peace and reconciliation," the spokesman was quoted as saying. DPRK is short for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's formal name.

The statement seemed aimed at strengthening Kim's position going into his meeting with Trump. Pyongyang claims Kim himself is the driver of the current situation and the spokesman said the U.S. should not to interpret Pyongyang's willingness to talk as a sign of weakness.

© Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>PYONGYANG, Korea, Democratic People's Republic Of -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in North Korea on Wednesday to finalize details of a historic summit planned between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump announced the mission in Washington on Tuesday just minutes before Pompeo arrived in Japan to refuel before flying on to Pyongyang, and as the president declared he was withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal with another bitter U.S. adversary, Iran.

U.S. officials say Pompeo will also press North Korea for the release of three detained American citizens, whose imminent release Trump has been hinting at. His trip comes just days after North Korea expressed displeasure with Washington for comments suggesting that massive U.S. pressure had pushed Kim to the negotiating table.

Pompeo, who first travelled to North Korea as CIA chief in early April, is only the second sitting secretary of state to visit the reclusive nation with which it is still technically at war. The first was Madeleine Albright in 2000 who went as part of an unsuccessful bid to arrange a meeting between then-President Bill Clinton and Kim's father Kim Jong Il.

"At this very moment, Secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un," Trump said at the White House.

"Plans are being made, relationships are building, hopefully a deal will happen and with the help of China, South Korea and Japan a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone," he said.

Pompeo flew out of Washington under cover of darkness late Monday aboard an Air Force 757 accompanied by a handful of senior aides, a security detail and two journalists: one from The Associated Press and one from The Washington Post, who were given roughly four hours' notice of his departure. The flight arrived Wednesday morning and North Korean officials were on hand to greet the American diplomat.

Pompeo's first trip to Pyongyang over Easter weekend before he was confirmed as secretary of state was a closely held secret. News of it did not emerge just before his Senate confirmation vote less than two weeks ago. Shortly afterward, the White House released photographs of Pompeo and Kim posing for cameras. It was not clear if Kim would meet Pompeo on Wednesday.

Pompeo told reporters aboard his plane that his first visit was to test the North Korean's seriousness of pledges to South Korea on easing tensions. This trip is "to put in place a framework for a successful summit," he said.

Although there were no guarantees that the American prisoners would be freed during Pompeo's visit, U.S. officials said their release would be significant goodwill gesture ahead of the Trump-Kim summit that is expected later this month or in early June.

"I think it would be a great gesture if they would agree to do so," Pompeo said, adding that it would be difficult to hold a leaders' summit if the prisoners remained captive. The three Korean-Americans -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim -- are all accused by the North of anti-state activities.

Trump has said that a time and place for the summit have been decided but has not said where and when it will be. Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang aims to lock down the date and venue for a formal announcement to be made. It came just a day after Kim returned from China, his second trip to the neighbouring country in six weeks to meet with President Xi Jinping.

A Trump-Kim meeting seemed a remote possibility just a few months ago when the two leaders were trading threats and insults over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests. But momentum for diplomacy built this year as North and South Korea have moved to ease tensions, including with their own leaders' summit late last month.

In March, Trump unexpectedly accepted an offer of talks from Kim after the North Korean dictator agreed to suspend nuclear and missile tests and discuss "denuclearization." According to South Korea, Kim says he's willing to give up his nukes if the United States commits to a formal end to the Korean War and pledges not to attack the North.

Kim was quoted as saying Monday by China's official news agency Xinhua: "I hope to build mutual trust with the U.S. through dialogue." He added that a political resolution of tensions on the Korean Peninsula and denuclearization should proceed in stages, with all sides moving in concert.

But his exact demands for relinquishing weapons that his nation spent decades building remain unclear. Previous U.S. efforts to negotiate an end to the North's nuclear weapons program failed under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.

Pompeo and officials travelling with him said the Trump administration would not repeat mistakes of the past, which they described as accepting gradual, incremental and long-term disarmament in exchange for immediate benefits. One senior official said Trump and Pompeo were looking for "a bold approach" that would fundamentally alter the security situation.

"We are not going to head back down the path that we headed down before," Pompeo said. "We will not relieve sanctions until such time as we have achieved our objectives. We're not going to do this in small increments where the world is essentially coerced into relieving economic pressure."

Trump has said that withdrawing U.S. forces from South Korea is "not on the table." Some 28,500 U.S. forces are based in the allied nation, a military presence that has been preserved to deter North Korea since the war ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.

After weeks of positive signals, though, North Korea on Sunday dismissed what it called "misleading" claims that Trump's policy of maximum political pressure and sanctions are what drove the North to talks. A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman warned the claims are a "dangerous attempt" to ruin a budding detente on the Korean Peninsula after the summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

"The U.S. is deliberately provoking the DPRK at the time when the situation on the Korean Peninsula is moving toward peace and reconciliation," the spokesman was quoted as saying. DPRK is short for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's formal name.

The statement seemed aimed at strengthening Kim's position going into his meeting with Trump. Pyongyang claims Kim himself is the driver of the current situation and the spokesman said the U.S. should not to interpret Pyongyang's willingness to talk as a sign of weakness.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.</s>President Trump said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on his way to North Korea to work out the details of the president’s expected upcoming landmark summit with Kim Jong-un.

“Plans are being made, relationships are building,” Trump said during a national address in the White House on Tuesday. “Hopefully a deal will happen. With the help of China, South Korea and Japan, a future of great prosperity can be achieved for everyone.”

It’s the second time Pompeo has traveled to North Korea.

He made a top-secret visit to country over Easter Weekend when he was still the CIA director to lay the groundwork for Trump’s meeting with Kim.

Trump’s revelation about Pompeo’s travel came as he announced he was pulling the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal.</s>U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in North Korea on Wednesday to finalize details of a historic summit planned between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump announced the mission in Washington on Tuesday just minutes before Pompeo arrived in Japan to refuel before flying on to Pyongyang, and as the president declared he was withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal with another bitter U.S. adversary, Iran.

U.S. officials say Pompeo will also press North Korea for the release of three detained American citizens, whose imminent release Trump has been hinting at. His trip comes just days after North Korea expressed displeasure with Washington for comments suggesting that massive U.S. pressure had pushed Kim to the negotiating table.

Pompeo, who first traveled to North Korea as CIA chief in early April, is only the second sitting secretary of state to visit the reclusive nation with which it is still technically at war. The first was Madeleine Albright in 2000 who went as part of an unsuccessful bid to arrange a meeting between then-President Bill Clinton and Kim's father Kim Jong Il.

"At this very moment, Secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un," Trump said at the White House.

"Plans are being made, relationships are building, hopefully a deal will happen and with the help of China, South Korea and Japan a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone," he said.

Pompeo flew out of Washington under cover of darkness late Monday aboard an Air Force 757 accompanied by a handful of senior aides, a security detail and two journalists: one from The Associated Press and one from The Washington Post, who were given roughly four hours' notice of his departure. The flight arrived Wednesday morning and North Korean officials were on hand to greet the American diplomat.

Pompeo's first trip to Pyongyang over Easter weekend before he was confirmed as secretary of state was a closely held secret. News of it did not emerge just before his Senate confirmation vote less than two weeks ago. Shortly afterward, the White House released photographs of Pompeo and Kim posing for cameras. It was not clear if Kim would meet Pompeo on Wednesday.

Pompeo told reporters aboard his plane that his first visit was to test the North Korean's seriousness of pledges to South Korea on easing tensions. This trip is "to put in place a framework for a successful summit," he said.

Although there were no guarantees that the American prisoners would be freed during Pompeo's visit, U.S. officials said their release would be significant goodwill gesture ahead of the Trump-Kim summit that is expected later this month or in early June.

"I think it would be a great gesture if they would agree to do so," Pompeo said, adding that it would be difficult to hold a leaders' summit if the prisoners remained captive. The three Korean-Americans — Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim — are all accused by the North of anti-state activities.

Trump has said that a time and place for the summit have been decided but has not said where and when it will be. Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang aims to lock down the date and venue for a formal announcement to be made. It came just a day after Kim returned from China, his second trip to the neighboring country in six weeks to meet with President Xi Jinping.

A Trump-Kim meeting seemed a remote possibility just a few months ago when the two leaders were trading threats and insults over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests. But momentum for diplomacy built this year as North and South Korea have moved to ease tensions, including with their own leaders' summit late last month.

In March, Trump unexpectedly accepted an offer of talks from Kim after the North Korean dictator agreed to suspend nuclear and missile tests and discuss "denuclearization." According to South Korea, Kim says he's willing to give up his nukes if the United States commits to a formal end to the Korean War and pledges not to attack the North.

Kim was quoted as saying Monday by China's official news agency Xinhua: "I hope to build mutual trust with the U.S. through dialogue." He added that a political resolution of tensions on the Korean Peninsula and denuclearization should proceed in stages, with all sides moving in concert.

But his exact demands for relinquishing weapons that his nation spent decades building remain unclear. Previous U.S. efforts to negotiate an end to the North's nuclear weapons program failed under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.

Pompeo and officials traveling with him said the Trump administration would not repeat mistakes of the past, which they described as accepting gradual, incremental and long-term disarmament in exchange for immediate benefits. One senior official said Trump and Pompeo were looking for "a bold approach" that would fundamentally alter the security situation.

"We are not going to head back down the path that we headed down before," Pompeo said. "We will not relieve sanctions until such time as we have achieved our objectives. We're not going to do this in small increments where the world is essentially coerced into relieving economic pressure."

Trump has said that withdrawing U.S. forces from South Korea is "not on the table." Some 28,500 U.S. forces are based in the allied nation, a military presence that has been preserved to deter North Korea since the war ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.

After weeks of positive signals, though, North Korea on Sunday dismissed what it called "misleading" claims that Trump's policy of maximum political pressure and sanctions are what drove the North to talks. A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman warned the claims are a "dangerous attempt" to ruin a budding detente on the Korean Peninsula after the summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

"The U.S. is deliberately provoking the DPRK at the time when the situation on the Korean Peninsula is moving toward peace and reconciliation," the spokesman was quoted as saying. DPRK is short for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's formal name.

The statement seemed aimed at strengthening Kim's position going into his meeting with Trump. Pyongyang claims Kim himself is the driver of the current situation and the spokesman said the U.S. should not to interpret Pyongyang's willingness to talk as a sign of weakness.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to return from North Korea with three American detainees, as well as details of an upcoming summit between leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump, a South Korean official said Wednesday.

Pompeo arrived in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Wednesday from Japan and headed to the city’s Koryo Hotel for meetings, a US media pool report said.

Trump earlier broke the news of Pompeo’s second visit to North Korea in less than six weeks and said the two countries had agreed on a date and location for the summit, though he stopped short of providing details.

An official at South Korea’s presidential Blue House said Pompeo was expected to finalise the date of the summit, and secure the release of three American detainees.

While Trump said it would be a “great thing” if the American detainees were freed, Pompeo, speaking to reporters en route to Pyongyang, said he had not received such a commitment but hoped North Korea would “do the right thing”.

“We’ll talk about it again today,” he said.

“I think it’d be a great gesture if they would choose to do so.”

The three still being held are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST.

Until now, the only American released by North Korea during Trump’s presidency has been Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old university student who returned to the United States in a coma last summer after 17 months of captivity and died days later.

Warmbier’s death escalated US-North Korea tensions, already running high at the time over Pyongyang’s stepped-up missile tests.

Six South Koreans are also being held – three Christian missionaries and three defectors originally from the North – with Seoul also pushing for their release.

The groundwork for the potential release of the three remaining American detainees was laid two months ago when North Korea’s foreign minister travelled to Sweden and proposed the idea, CNN reported earlier, citing an unnamed source.

Pompeo’s visit comes a day after Kim Jong-un made his second trip to China in less than two months, meeting President Xi Jinping and discussing the ongoing international talks over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

During the visit, announced only after it was over, Kim told Xi he hoped relevant parties would take “phased” and “synchronised” measures to realise denuclearisation and lasting peace on the Korean peninsula, according to Chinese state media.

Separately, Trump and Xi discussed developments on the Korean peninsula and Kim’s visit to China during a phone call on Tuesday morning, the White House said.

Pompeo’s return to North Korea comes in his second week as the administration’s top diplomat. Arrangements were made in great secrecy befitting a former CIA director.

Pompeo has promised to “bring back the swagger” to a US State Department that has been sidelined in some foreign policy debates.

His high-profile visit appears to be a splashy step in that direction.

Pompeo may get an earful from the officials he meets. Pyongyang has been disgruntled over what it called “misleading” assertions from some US officials that North Korea is considering denuclearisation because it fears US military prowess and to alleviate punishing sanctions – a “maximum pressure campaign” laid out by Pompeo’s predecessor, Rex Tillerson, who was fired by Trump in March.</s>(PYONGYANG) — After months of anticipation and drama, North Korea’s release of three American detainees played out amid high-stakes diplomacy and was only sealed about an hour before the top U.S. diplomat was wheels-up from Pyongyang.

The three men — Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim — walked on their own from a van and onto the plane of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the end of his daylong visit to North Korea.

After meeting leader Kim Jong Un, Pompeo had given a fingers-crossed sign when asked if there was good news. A North Korean emissary came to the hotel shortly after to say the detainees were being freed.

The three men finally left custody at 7:45 p.m. local time, and by 8:42 p.m. they were flying home.

As soon as the plane cleared North Korean airspace, Pompeo called President Donald Trump to inform him of the releases with the men all apparently in good health; then other officials notified their families.

Even before Pompeo’s plane had touched down for a stopover at Yokota Air Base in neighboring Japan, the president announced to the world by Twitter that the “3 wonderful gentlemen” were free.

They are the latest in a series of Americans to be held in North Korea for alleged anti-state activities in recent years, only to be freed during the visit of a high-level U.S. official or statesman. Their releases draw a line under an issue that had weighed on plans for a historic summit between Kim and Trump that will focus on North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

“We’re granting amnesty to the three detained Americans,” the North Korean emissary told Pompeo at Pyongyang’s Koryo Hotel, according to the senior U.S. official who requested anonymity to discuss the exchange. “We issued the order to grant immediate amnesty to the detainees.”

The North Korean official then advised that the releases would follow a “very brief ceremony” — which he described as more like a legal process. The official closed with a gentle warning for the U.S. to prevent a repeat: “You should make care that they do not make the same mistakes again,” the official said. “This was a hard decision.”

The Trump administration has made clear it regarded the arrests as political motivated, and had been bitterly critical of North Korea’s refusal to grant consular access to the three, other than a brief visit by a U.S. envoy last June. The envoy had repatriated college student Otto Warmbier, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor for stealing a propaganda poster. Warmbier died in June 2017, days after he arrived back in the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Since then, pressure to win the releases of the other three men, whom the administration has referred to as “hostages,” has intensified.

Relatively little is known about the men, all Korean-Americans, and the circumstances in which they ended up in North Korean custody.

Kim Dong Chul, a former Virginia resident who had reportedly run a company on North Korea’s border with Russia, had been sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison with hard labor after being convicted of espionage. Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, who had both taught at a university in Pyongyang that was founded with donations from Christian groups, had been held for about one year and apparently had not been tried.

Tony Kim’s son Sol Kim, a graduate student in California, is the only relative of the detainees to have appealed in public for their freedom. On learning of the release of Tony, who also uses the name Kim Sang-duk, his family expressed gratitude and credited Trump for engaging directly with North Korea.

Washington and Pyongyang have remained in a state of war since the fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War ended and do not have formal diplomatic ties, complicating efforts to handle the cases of American detainees. Typically, Swedish diplomats based in North Korea handle U.S. consular affairs.

Pompeo, the most senior U.S. official to meet with a North Korean leader since 2000, was making his second visit to the isolated nation in five weeks — and less than two weeks after becoming top diplomat. Some in Washington had expressed disappointment that Pompeo’s first trip, made in secret when he was still CIA director, did not win the freedom of the three captives.

Pompeo said Wednesday he was “thrilled” the men were now out.

“Though we’re not quite back home yet, I welcomed them back,” he said, recounting his first words with the men after they were freed. “They were happy to be with us on this plane to be sure,” he said.

The three boarded under their own steam, when most of the U.S. delegation had already boarded the plane. They were seated with medical personnel in a curtained off area of the plane.

After arriving at the stop in Japan, the men transferred to another plane with more medical facilities and were expected to land at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in the wee hours of Thursday, where Trump planned to greet them.
The three remaining American detainees in North Korea fly with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the United States.