White House clarifies that U.S. President Trump did not have direct talks with Kim Jong-un

트럼프 "김정은과 직접 대화?" 질문에 "Yes"…백악관은 부인 Talks to lay the groundwork for the first ever Washington-Pyongyang bilateral summit are also fast developing. U.S. President Donald Trump made a number of intriguing comments regarding the matter. Lee Ji-won shares with us his remarks. Tuesday's headlines were filled with claims that U.S. President Donald Trump had direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The news came after Trump smiled and answered "yes" when asked by a reporter if he had spoken directly with Kim,... but he quickly backtracked, saying "let's leave it a little bit short of the highest level". President Trump was asked the question during the first day of the two-day summit with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders also clarified that the talks were not with Kim directly. What has been confirmed is that the U.S. did engage in direct talks with the North at "extremely high levels", according to President Trump, but he did not specify which senior officials from Washington and Pyongyang have talked. He also mentioned that five locations are under consideration for the scheduled Washington-Pyongyang summit. No specific locations have been mentioned, but the United States is not among those being considered, said Trump. Amid heightened interest on the development of the summit talks, the U.S. leader stressed that it is the end result that is important. "I really believe there's a lot of goodwill, a lot of good things are happening. We'll see what happens, as I always say, we'll see what happens, because ultimately it's the end result that counts not the fact that we're thinking about having a meeting or having a meeting." Just hours after Trump's comments, there was a report that CIA Director Mike Pompeo visited Pyongyang. Citing two people with direct knowledge of the trip, the Washington Post said the CIA chief went to Pyongyang over the Easter weekend to meet Kim Jong-un as Trump's envoy, in an effort to lay the groundwork for the much anticipated North Korea-U.S. summit. The Easter weekend was from March 31st to April 1st.... not long after Pompeo had been nominated for Secretary of State. This would make Pompeo one of the most senior officials known to have visited Pyongyang in recent years,... following the nation's intelligence chief James Clapper in 2014. But the CIA and the White House declined to comment on the matter. The intelligence agency has been in direct contact with the North in recent weeks. Multiple sources, including CNN and Reuters, reported that CIA and State Department officials are communicating with the North through back channels to plan for the summit which is expected to be held in late May or early June. Lee Ji-won, Arirang News. Arirang News Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/arirangtvnews ------------------------------------------------------------ [Subscribe Arirang Official YouTube] ARIRANG TV: http://www.youtube.com/arirang ARIRANG RADIO: http://www.youtube.com/Music180Arirang ARIRANG NEWS: http://www.youtube.com/arirangnews ARIRANG K-POP: http://www.youtube.com/arirangworld ARIRANG ISSUE: http://www.youtube.com/arirangtoday ARIRANG CULTURE: http://www.youtube.com/arirangkorean ARIRANG FOOD & TRAVEL : http://www.youtube.com/ArirangFoodTravel ------------------------------------------------------------ [Visit Arirang TV Official Pages] Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/arirangtv Twitter: http://twitter.com/arirangworld Instagram: http://instagram.com/arirangworld Homepage: http://www.arirang.com ------------------------------------------------------------ [Arirang K-Pop] YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/arirangworld Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/arirangkpop Google+: http://plus.google.com/+arirangworld