Nuclear security

Pompeo: North Korea Will Take Major Steps To Disarm In Trump's First Term

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that he expects North Korea to take steps toward major nuclear disarmament within the next two-and-a-half years.

"Most certainly in the president's first term," he said, speaking to a pool of journalists in Seoul, South Korea, where he was meeting his South Korean and Japanese counterparts.

Pompeo told reporters he wasn't going to get into what President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un discussed during Tuesday's historic meeting in Singapore. "I'm not going to give any insight into where we are in private talks," he said.

The joint statement released Tuesday was scant on the details, leaving the agreement between Trump and Kim vague. Earlier today, North Korean state media reported that Trump made concessions to Kim that were not in the statement signed by the leaders— including Trump agreeing to "the principle of step-by-step and simultaneous action" rather than the U.S. administration's prior demands for rapid denuclearization.