President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he had asked his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to cancel a planned trip to North Korea because there had not been enough progress in talks so far.
Trump’s tweets suggested that his decision was motivated in part by unrelated trade talks that took place this week between the U.S. and China, and he said talks with North Korea would be put on hold until trade issues with China were resolved.
The State Department did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The announcement came just one day after Pompeo announced that he would visit North Korea to continue negotiations over the country’s nuclear disarmament.
Also this week, Pompeo named Stephen Biegun, a former George W. Bush administration official and Ford Motor Co.executive, as the U.S. State Department’s special representative for North Korea.
“It’s a very timely moment for Steve to join the team and come on board. He and I will be traveling to North Korea next week to make further diplomatic progress towards our objective,” Pompeo said on Thursday.
He added that Biegun would direct the nation’s policy toward North Korea and “lead our efforts to achieve President Trump’s goal of the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea, as agreed to by Chairman Kim Jong Un.”
However, a State Department spokeswoman asked about the trip on Thursday said Pompeo and Biegun did not plan to meet with Kim.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
–CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.
