The Latest: Pompeo heading to North Korea again
By Associated Press
Jul 2, 2018 3:32 PM CDT
In this undated photo provided on July 2, 2018, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, visits Sinuiju Chemical Fibre Mill in Sinuiju, North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean...   (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the United States and North Korea (all times local):

4:22 p.m.

The White House says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will make another trip to North Korea as the Trump administration seeks agreement with Pyongyang on an acceptable denuclearization plan.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced on Monday that Pompeo would travel to North Korea this week. The trip to Pyongyang will be Pompeo's second as top U.S. diplomat and the first by a senior U.S. official since Trump's historic meeting with Kim Jong Un in Singapore last month.

The trip comes as concerns mount over the North's willingness to follow through on the agreement signed by the two leaders. U.S. officials say they are clear-eyed about the North's past behavior in negotiations.

Pompeo last visited Pyongyang in May ahead of the Trump-Kim summit and traveled there secretly in early April while he was director of the CIA.

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11:37 a.m.

The State Department says a senior U.S. diplomat held talks with North Korea in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas over the weekend.

U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim, led a delegation Sunday to Panmunjom, the border village in the DMZ, to discuss next steps on implementation of the joint declaration signed at the June 12 summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The department said in a statement Monday: "Our goal remains the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK, as agreed to by Chairman Kim in Singapore."

DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Sung Kim is a former U.S. envoy for North Korea and led policy negotiations with Pyongyang in advance of the summit.

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12:38 a.m.

The United States has a plan that would lead to the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs in a year. That from President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday.

But U.S. intelligence is reporting signs that Pyongyang doesn't intend to fully give up its arsenal.

Bolton said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that top U.S. diplomat Mike Pompeo will be discussing that plan with North Korea in the near future. Bolton added that it would be to the North's advantage to cooperate to see sanctions lifted quickly and aid from South Korea and Japan start to flow.

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