Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, said on Monday North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was ready to allow international inspectors into the North’s nuclear and missile testing sites, one of the main sticking points over an earlier denuclearisation pledge.
Mr Pompeo, who met Mr Kim during a short trip to Pyongyang on Sunday, said the inspectors would visit a missile engine test facility and the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site as soon as the two sides agree on logistics.
“There’s a lot of logistics that will be required to execute that,” Mr Pompeo told a news briefing in Seoul before leaving for Beijing.
The top US diplomat also said both sides were “pretty close” to agreement on the details of a second summit, which Mr Kim proposed to US President Donald Trump in a letter last month.
Mr Trump and Mr Kim held an historic first summit in Singapore in June.
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