 Washington (CNN) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that he and his newly announced special representative to North Korea, Stephen Biegun, will be traveling to Pyongyang next week.
– Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday announced plans to travel to North Korea with newly hired special envoy Stephen Biegun next week. On Friday, however, President Trump said he asked Pompeo to cancel the trip. The reason for what the New York Times calls the "abrupt cancelation": "I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," the president tweeted, adding that he does not think China is helping with the denuclearization process "because of our much tougher trading stance." Pompeo "looks forward to going to North Korea in the near future, most likely after our trading relationship with China is resolved," continues Trump. It would have been Pompeo's fourth trip to Pyongyang, per CNN. During a July trip, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "snubbed" the secretary of state and the visit went "as badly as it could have gone," sources told the network.