Washington ready to begin negotiating immediately to achieve denuclearisation of North Korea: Mike Pompeo

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Washington is ready to begin negotiating immediately to achieve the denuclearisation of North Korea by January 2021.

In a statement, Pompeo said he spoke with his North Korean counterpart today morning and invited him to meet in New York next week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Mr Pompeo said on the basis of these important commitments, the United States is prepared to engage immediately in negotiations to transform



US-DPRK relations.

The statement came after the North's leader Kim Jong Un agreed to make a historic visit to Seoul soon and close a missile testing site in front of international inspectors in a meeting with the South's President Moon Jae-in. Kim's trip to Seoul would be the first by a Northern leader since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, when hostilities ceased with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving them technically in a state of war.