U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in North Korea on Wednesday to finalize details of a planned summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un. A look at recent events in U.S.-North Korea relations:

Jan. 1, 2017: Kim Jong Un says in a New Year's address that preparations for launching an intercontinental ballistic missile have "reached the final stage."

Jan. 2: President-elect Donald Trump tweets, "North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won't happen!"

July 4: North Korea conducts its first flight test of an ICBM, the Hwasong-14, which Kim calls the North's "package of gifts" for the U.S.'s Independence Day.

July 28: A second Hwasong-14 is launched with an estimated range reaching into the U.S. mainland, including cities such as Chicago.

Aug. 9: Trump says North Korea had best not make more threats or "they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." North Korea hours later announces a plan to launch a salvo of missiles toward the U.S. territory of Guam, a major military hub in the Pacific. The North does not carry out on the threat.

Aug. 29: An intermediate-range North Korean missile flies over Japan and plunges into the northern Pacific.

Sept. 3: North Korea carries out its sixth and most powerful nuclear test to date, saying it was a hydrogen bomb designed for use on ICBMs.

Sept. 19: Trump tells the U.N. General Assembly the United States would "totally destroy North Korea" if forced to defend itself or its allies. He refers to Kim as "Rocket Man" and that he's "on a suicide mission for himself."

Sept. 22: Kim accuses Trump of "mentally deranged behavior." He says he will "surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U. S. dotard with fire."

Nov. 29: North Korea's third ICBM test demonstrates a potential range that could reach Washington, D.C.

Jan. 1, 2018: Kim says in his New Year's address that he has a nuclear button on his desk, but also calls for improved relations with South Korea. Trump soon responds that he has a bigger and more powerful nuclear button, "and my Button works!"

Jan. 9: North and South Korean officials meet in the border village of Panmunjom, and agree on North Korea sending athletes and delegates to the Winter Olympics taking place in the South the following month.

March 7: A top South Korean official visits Pyongyang and says Kim is willing to discuss the fate of his nuclear arsenal with the United States and has expressed a readiness to suspend nuclear and missile tests during such talks.

March 9: Trump accepts Kim's invitation to meet, which the White House says will take place by the end of May.

March 27: Kim makes a surprise visit to Beijing for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in an apparent move to strengthen his leverage ahead of his negotiations with Trump.

April 18: Trump confirmed that Pompeo, then the CIA chief, secretly met with Kim in North Korea and said "a good relationship was formed" heading into the adversaries' anticipated summit.

April 21: North Korea says it has suspended nuclear and long-range missile tests and plans to close its nuclear test site as part of a move to shift its national focus and improve its economy. Trump tweeted, "This is very good news for North Korea and the World" and "big progress!"

May 7: Kim meets Xi again in China's Dailan and calls for stronger "strategic cooperation" between the traditional allies amid shifts in the region's political environment.

May 9: Pompeo arrives in Pyongyang for meetings ahead of Trump's planned summit with Kim. The Kim-Trump meeting is anticipated for May or June.</s>BEIJING >> North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a northern Chinese port city and pledged his continuing commitment to denuclearization ahead of his expected summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, state media said Tuesday.

The meeting Monday and Tuesday in Dalian is the second between Xi and Kim in recent weeks, following Kim’s March visit to Beijing — his first since taking power six years ago.

In comments carried Tuesday night by Chinese state media, neither leader was quoted as directly referring to either the planned Trump meeting or Kim’s summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in late last month.

However, state broadcaster CCTV quoted Xi as saying China “supports North Korea to stick to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and supports North Korea and the U.S. in solving the peninsula issue through dialogue and consultation.”

Trump tweeted Tuesday that he planned to speak with Xi later in the day to discuss trade and North Korea, where he said “relationships and trust are building.”

Kim was quoted as telling Xi that North Korea remains committed to denuclearization and has no need to possess nuclear weapons if a “relevant party” drops its “hostile policy and security threats” against it, a clear reference to the United States.

“I hope to build mutual trust with the U.S. through dialogue,” Kim was quoted as saying. A political resolution of tensions on the peninsula and denuclearization should proceed in stages, with all sides moving in concert, he said. The Trump administration has demanded that North Korea immediately commit to denuclearization.

The Kim-Xi meeting was the top news story in North Korea, with its most famous television announcer, Ri Chun Hui, again called out of her semi-retirement to report the event, underscoring its importance. Ri, wearing a traditional Korean-style dress, often smiled as she reported the news.

The report, which lasted about 20 minutes, did not show any photos or video of the visit.

Kim was accompanied by his younger sister, who has taken on an increasingly public role as the North Korean leader has tried to present a “softer” face to the outside world.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said there was a “deep exchange of opinions” between Kim and Xi on the changes around the Korean Peninsula that are “drawing the world’s eyes and ears.”

Kim offered his views on how North Korea and China would “firmly grasp the strategic opportunity,” it said.

Though rumors are likely widespread, North Korea’s media still have not explicitly confirmed the expected summit with Trump.

The recent South Korean summit and the potential U.S. talks have received more attention internationally, but China’s role as an economic lifeline for North Korea makes the talks between Xi and Kim all the more crucial.

Kim needs to make sure that whatever negotiations he has with Trump align to some degree with Beijing’s positions, which could certainly complicate his task ahead.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said Xi hosted a welcome banquet for Kim on Monday and the two leaders strolled along the coastline at a government guesthouse and had lunch together on Tuesday.

“At a crucial time when the regional situation is developing rapidly, Kim said he came to China again to meet with (Xi) and inform him of the situation,” Xinhua said.

CCTV showed Xi wearing a western business suit and Kim in his standard high-collared Mao suit. They stood on a beach, sat under an awning on an outdoor deck, strolled through lush gardens and sat at a conference table.

“In a cordial and friendly atmosphere, the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries had an all-round and in-depth exchange of views on China-DPRK relations and major issues of common concern,” Xinhua said, using the initials for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

China is North Korea’s only major ally, although trade has plummeted in recent months as Beijing enforces United Nations economic sanctions in response to the North’s nuclear bomb and ballistic missile tests.

China has also been eager to assert its importance in the process of lowering tensions on the Korean Peninsula. It has called for a halt to weapons tests and large-scale military exercises and a return to six-nation denuclearization talks it previously hosted in Beijing.

It was not known how long the Xi-Kim meeting had been planned or why Dalian was chosen. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper cited two unidentified sources as saying that Xi had flown to Dalian on the coast east of Beijing to preside over the official launch of sea trials for China’s first entirely self-built aircraft carrier.

Chinese internet users posting on social media described heavy security in the city and extensive flight delays on Monday. Others said they spotted a set of Red Flag limousines used by state leaders.

As with Kim’s March visit to Beijing, his presence in Dalian was not officially confirmed until he had left China. Reports said his jet flew out of Dalian airport on Tuesday afternoon.

Associated Press writers Eric Talmadge in Pyongyang, North Korea, and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.</s>US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has arrived in North Korea to finalise details of a historic summit planned between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has arrived in North Korea to finalise details of a historic summit planned between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

US Secretary of State arrives in North Korea to finalise Trump-Kim summit

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

Mr 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 Mr Kim’s father Mr Kim Jong Il.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo first travelled to North Korea as CIA chief in early April (Andrew Harnik/AP) “At this very moment, Secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un,” Mr 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.

Mr Pompeo flew out of Washington under cover of darkness late on 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 on Wednesday morning and North Korean officials were on hand to greet the American diplomat.

It was not clear if Mr Kim would meet Mr Pompeo on Wednesday. Mr 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 Mr Pompeo’s visit, US officials said their release would be significant goodwill gesture ahead of the Mr Trump-Mr 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,” Mr Pompeo said, adding that it would be difficult to hold a leaders’ summit if the prisoners remained captive. The three Korean-Americans — Mr Kim Dong Chul, Mr Kim Hak Song and Tony Mr Kim — are all accused by the North of anti-state activities. Mr Trump has said that a time and place for the summit have been decided but has not said where and when it will be.

Mr 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 Mr Kim returned from China, his second trip to the neighbouring country in six weeks to meet with President Xi Jinping. A Trump-Mr 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, Mr Trump unexpectedly accepted an offer of talks from Mr Kim after the North Korean dictator agreed to suspend nuclear and missile tests and discuss “denuclearisation”. According to South Korea, Mr Kim says he is 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. Mr Kim was quoted as saying on Monday by China’s official news agency Xinhua: “I hope to build mutual trust with the US through dialogue.”

He added that a political resolution of tensions on the Korean Peninsula and denuclearisation 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 US efforts to negotiate an end to the North’s nuclear weapons program failed under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. Mr Pompeo and officials travelling with him said the Mr 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 Mr Trump and Mr 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,” Mr 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.”</s>US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Washington's chief diplomat Mike Pompeo is on his way to North Korea to prepare for a landmark nuclear summit, as a flurry of diplomacy with Pyongyang at the center gathered pace.

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are expected to meet later this month or early in June for talks that would have been nearly unthinkable a year ago, when the two mercurial leaders were trading barbs and Pyongyang tested a barrage of missiles.

But after months of saber-rattling, and a historic summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the mood is decidedly more upbeat, and Trump has said a date and location are already set -- though he did not divulge any specifics.

"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 in a televised address from the White House.

Pompeo, who met Kim in Pyongyang about a month ago while he was still director of the CIA, will arrive in the North in "virtually an hour," Trump said.

"We have our meeting schedule. We have our meeting set. The location is picked. The time and date. Everything is picked. And we look forward to having a very great success," he said.

"We think relationships are building with North Korea. We will see how it all works out. Maybe it won't. But it can be a great thing for North Korea, South Korea and the entire world."

In addition to planning the summit, Pompeo has been pressing the regime to release three detained US citizens. Trump has said to "stay tuned" on the issue.

"We will be listening for signs from North Korea that things have substantially changed since Kim declared on New Year's Eve that he would mass produce nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them," a senior State Department official traveling with Pompeo said.

"We're going to be listening for -- have they turned the page and are they ready to address areas that directly affect American national security? The secretary is clear-eyed about not repeating the mistakes of the past."

Trump's announcement came on the heels of talks in northeast China between Kim and China's Xi Jinping -- their second meeting in six weeks -- at which Kim reiterated his commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Kim's unannounced trip to the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian was his second visit to China since March, highlighting efforts by the Cold War-era allies to mend relations that cooled as Beijing supported UN sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.</s>DALIAN, China — The leaders of China and North Korea met for the second time in two months on Tuesday, staying overnight in this Chinese port city as China worked to regain control in the fast-moving diplomacy over the North’s nuclear program.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, flew to Dalian on Monday, where he held long rounds of discussions with Chinese officials, attended a formal banquet, and took a stroll on a beachfront sidewalk with China’s president, Xi Jinping. The pageantry was shown at length on China’s state-run evening television news, with the two men looking like friends, if rather stiff ones.

The Chinese leader appeared intent on showing that the frayed relationship with North Korea was now repaired, and that China was as important to resolving the problems of North Korea’s nuclear weapons as the United States.

President Trump has said he will meet with Mr. Kim in the coming weeks, and tweeted hours after the meeting in Dalian that he expected to talk shortly on the phone with Mr. Xi about North Korea, as well as trade.</s>(Reuters) - Time can feel like it is standing still for U.S. citizens held prisoner by North Korea, but the ordeal can end with startling swiftness, former detainees said.

After months and even years of hardship, those released by North Korea said they found themselves boarding a U.S. plane and being flown out of the country less than an hour after being told by their captors that they were going home.

The three Americans that U.S. President Donald Trump said were released by North Korea and headed home on Wednesday may have similar stories to tell when they land at a military base outside Washington early Thursday morning.

“They didn’t tell me anything about my release until the last minute. I was in the hospital and taken to a hotel,” the longest-held American in North Korea, Kenneth Bae, said in an interview from South Korea.

Once informed of his release in 2014, an American delegation came in and within 30 minutes he was aboard an airplane to take him out of North Korea. From there it was a 24-hour journey via Guam and Hawaii home to Seattle, where his family was waiting.

While a prisoner, Bae was forced to shovel coal and haul rocks. He had about 30 guards watching him as their sole prisoner during his two years in captivity, which included hospital stays for the beating his body took from the hard labor.

Since the end of the Korean War, North Korea has taken 17 Americans captive, many of whom were in the country for humanitarian reasons inspired by their Christian faith. Bae and the three Americans just released - Kim Hak-song, Kim Dong-chul and Kim Sang-Duk, also known as Tony Kim - fall into that category.

In North Korea, where the Kim family that has ruled the country for more than 70 years is revered as demigods, proselytizing is seen as an assault on the state, punishable by years of hard labor.

Isolated from the world, time seems to halt, former detainees say. Confinement for the Americans detained by North Korea can range from hotel rooms to cramped, windowless shacks offering little protection from the country’s bitter cold.

Former prisoners, who also have included tourists and journalists, have said they were interrogated for hours and suffered mental humiliation. A few said the isolation led them to consider suicide.

The United States demands the release of U.S. citizens every time it deals with North Korea, which detains, and releases, them for its own reasons, said a former U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In an interview prior to the three prisoners’ release, the former official said some negotiations are handled by the U.S. State Department via the “New York channel” of contacts with North Korean diplomats at the United Nations, while others are handled via the U.S. intelligence community.

“They don’t just keep them. They keep them for a reason and then they release them for a reason,” he added. The latest release came ahead of a planned meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

For the prisoners treated as bargaining chips, releases can move at alarming speeds.

Jeffrey Fowle, a tourist held for about six months in North Korea for leaving a Bible in a sailor’s club during his visit, said the day he was released, he was told he was being transferred, and presented with belongings he had not seen for months.

“I thought I was going to the detention camp, or to trial, or something. I went from my guest house to a nearby hotel,” he said in a telephone interview from his Ohio home.

“Then some well-dressed North Korean man came in and said ‘Kim Jong Un has recommended that you be released.’ And that was the first thing I heard about it,” he said.

Otto Warmbier, 22, from Wyoming, Ohio, was imprisoned from January 2016 to June 2017, and was released in a coma. He died a few days later in the United States, with his parents accusing North Korea of torturing him, a charge Pyongyang denies.

A few months after Warmbier’s death, former detainee Aijalon Gomes, 38, set himself on fire in a San Diego lot in November 2017. Gomes was held for about seven months in North Korea after he crossed into the country from China in January 2010 on what he saw as a religious mission.

After his return, Gomes wrote a self-published autobiography titled “Violence and Humanity,” in which he talked about his suicide attempts while being held in North Korea.

Bae and Fowle, devout Christians, said their time in North Korea deepened their faith and helped get them through.

“Emotionally and psychologically, they (the North Koreans) were trying to wear me out,” said Bae.</s>'We Hope It All Works Out': Pompeo Pays Surprise Visit To North Korea For Talks

President Trump closed the door on U.S. participation in the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday — but during the very same televised announcement, the president opened a window onto talks about another country's nuclear program: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is traveling to North Korea to discuss an expected summit between the two countries.

"He will be there very shortly," Trump told reporters at the White House. "We have our meetings set. The location is picked. The time and date — everything is picked, and we look forward to having a very great success."

The comments came just moments after he declared that the U.S. will withdraw from the multilateral agreement, signed in 2015, that aimed to restrict Iran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump cited the fact that the deal allows Iran to continue work on its ballistic missile program and to continue funding groups the U.S. has deemed terrorists.

North Korea, which already possesses nuclear weapons, has grabbed headlines with frequent missile tests in recent years, even demonstrating a capacity to hit the mainland U.S. The U.S. and its allies, in turn, have responded with escalating sanctions intended to hobble North Korea's economy.

But typically bellicose Pyongyang has softened its rhetoric since the start of the year, pledging efforts to negotiate a permanent peace treaty with South Korea and denuclearize the entire Korean Peninsula.

Pompeo made a secret visit to Kim last month, before the then-CIA director had been confirmed as secretary of state. At the time, Trump said "a good relationship was formed" between the two men.

In remarks to the media aboard his plane later Tuesday, Pompeo said the visit last month was "a limited diplomatic discussion" — one that he aims to build upon this time around. In particular, he added that the focus will rest both with building a framework for the likely summit between Trump and Kim and with setting expectations for negotiations.

"We are not going to do this in small increments, where the world is essentially coerced into relieving economic pressure. That won't lead to the outcome that I know Kim Jong Un wants and I know President Trump is demanding," Pompeo said.

"We're hoping to set out that set of conditions that will give them this opportunity to have a historic, big change in the security relationship between North Korea and the United States, which will achieve what the President has tweeted about and talked about: complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization."

Pompeo also noted he would speak to his North Korean counterparts about freeing three U.S. detainees being held in the country: "We have been asking for the release of these detainees for – this administration for 17 months," he said. "We'll talk about it again today. I think it'd be a great gesture if they would choose to do so."

Last week Trump hinted at developments related to the three American men, tweeting, "Stay tuned!"

Yet when reporters asked him Tuesday if the three are soon to be freed, Trump made no promises: "We will soon be finding out," he said. "It would be a great thing if they are."

"We think relationships are building with North Korea," Trump added. "We'll see how it all works out. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But it can be a great thing for North Korea, South Korea, Japan and the entire world. We hope it all works out."

While Trump was at the White House announcing Pompeo's visit, Kim was paying a surprise visit of his own to China — his second in just over a month. There, in the port city of Dalian, Kim attended a banquet and took a stroll with Chinese President Xi Jinping while having "an all-around and in-depth exchange of views on China-DPRK relations and major issues of common concern," according to a statement posted by the Chinese government.

Officials from the two countries focused on deepening their bilateral connections and sorting out the details of dialogue with the U.S.

"China is willing to continue to work with all relevant parties and play an active role in comprehensively advancing the process of peaceful resolution of the peninsula issue through dialogue, and realizing long-term peace and stability in the region," Xi said in the statement.

On Wednesday, Chinese officials plan to attend still another discussion regarding trade policies with the U.S. and North Korea's nuclear program — this time in Japan, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Tokyo. Xi's No. 2, Prime Minister Li Keqiang, is expected to lead the Chinese delegation.

Pompeo's visit will pertain to the diplomatic maneuverings already underway this week in East Asia. But one of Pompeo's predecessors, President Clinton's secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, expressed reservations at the speed with which the Trump administration is moving.

Albright herself visited North Korea in 2000 for a meeting with the current leader's father, Kim Jong Il, attempting to put an end to the elder Kim's nuclear aspirations.

"I think diplomatic talks are a good idea. They're not a gift. They are the way you talk to people that you disagree with," Albright told NPR's Rachel Martin last month.

"But it does require preparation," she added. "And that's what worries me — is that all of a sudden, if it is a meeting between the two leaders, both of whom have a tendency to kind of say exactly just what the latest thing is on their minds, I do think there needs to be a lot of preparation."

John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser, told reporters on a call Tuesday that the administration intends the talks with North Korea to avoid the mistakes they see in the Iran deal, seeking more stringent terms.

"When you're serious about eliminating the threat of nuclear proliferation, you have to address the aspects that permit the aspiring nuclear state to get there. The Iran deal did not do that," Bolton said.

"The deal that we hope to reach — and the president's optimistic we can reach — with North Korea will address all those issues."</s>US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Washington's chief diplomat Mike Pompeo is on his way to North Korea to prepare for a landmark nuclear summit, as a flurry of diplomacy with Pyongyang at the center gathered pace.

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are expected to meet later this month or early in June for talks that would have been nearly unthinkable a year ago, when the two mercurial leaders were trading barbs and Pyongyang tested a barrage of missiles.

But after months of saber-rattling, and a historic summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the mood is decidedly more upbeat, and Trump has said a date and location are already set -- though he did not divulge any specifics.

"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 in a televised address from the White House.

Pompeo, who met Kim in Pyongyang about a month ago while he was still director of the CIA, will arrive in the North in "virtually an hour," Trump said.

"We have our meeting schedule. We have our meeting set. The location is picked. The time and date. Everything is picked. And we look forward to having a very great success," he said.

"We think relationships are building with North Korea. We will see how it all works out. Maybe it won't. But it can be a great thing for North Korea, South Korea and the entire world."

In addition to planning the summit, Pompeo has been pressing the regime to release three detained US citizens. Trump has said to "stay tuned" on the issue.

"We will be listening for signs from North Korea that things have substantially changed since Kim declared on New Year's Eve that he would mass produce nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them," a senior State Department official traveling with Pompeo said.

"We're going to be listening for -- have they turned the page and are they ready to address areas that directly affect American national security? The secretary is clear-eyed about not repeating the mistakes of the past."

Trump's announcement came on the heels of talks in northeast China between Kim and China's Xi Jinping -- their second meeting in six weeks -- at which Kim reiterated his commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Kim's unannounced trip to the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian was his second visit to China since March, highlighting efforts by the Cold War-era allies to mend relations that cooled as Beijing supported UN sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.</s>BEIJING—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un paid a second surprise visit to China to meet his Chinese counterpart, reinforcing a recent warming of ties ahead of his planned summit with President Donald Trump.

Mr. Kim turned up in the northeastern coastal city of Dalian on Monday and Tuesday for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a follow-up to a summit six weeks ago. In their meetings, the North Korean leader discussed a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, Chinese state media reported.

...</s>Washington, May 9 (IANS) President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was en route to Pyongyang to prepare for an upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

“At this very moment, Secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un,” said Trump in a Tuesday appearance to announce Washington’s withdrawal from the nuclear pact with Iran, Efe reported.

The President announced Pompeo’s trip at the end of his remarks regarding Iran, during which he stated that the US “will not be held hostage by nuclear blackmail” by Tehran, adding that “The US no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them.”

Responding to reporters’ questions, Trump said that Pompeo would be landing in North Korea in about an hour.

“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,” said Trump.

The President also referred to the three Americans being held prisoner by North Korea whom he has promised several times would soon be freed, possibly as a gesture of goodwill by Pyongyang in advance of the Trump-Kim summit.

When asked if Pompeo would be bringing the three Americans home when he returns to the US, Trump said only “We’ll all soon be finding out.”

The three prisoners are 64-year-old Kim Dong-chul, 58-year-old Kim Sang-duk and Kim Hak-song, about 60, all born in South Korea but who later acquired US citizenship.

Last week, Trump said that a date and location for his meeting with the North Korean leader had already been set, although he refused to reveal any further details.

To date, the White House has said that the meeting would happen in late May or early June and that several sites were being considered, including Singapore and the border between the two Koreas, Trump reportedly favouring the latter.

The meeting between Kim and Trump will be the first between North Korean and US leaders after almost 70 years of confrontation that began with the 1950-1953 Korean War and 25 years of failed negotiations.
For the second time in two months, North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un meets China's paramount leader Xi Jinping, this time in Dalian.