Pompeo declined comment on negative signals from North Korea, that have included demands for a lifting of sanctions and complaints about Washington’s apparent reluctance to agree to a declaration to end the 1950-53 Korean War without major concessions.

“I’m very happy to be going back to get another chance to continue to advance the commitment that Chairman Kim and President Trump made back in Singapore in the second week of June,” Pompeo told a news briefing at the State Department.

“I’m optimistic that we’ll come away from that with better understandings, deeper progress and a plan forward, not only for the summit between the two leaders, but for us to continue the efforts to build out a pathway for denuclearization.”

At an unprecedented June 12 meeting with Trump, Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, but his actions have fallen short of Washington’s demands for a complete inventory of its nuclear weapons and irreversible steps to give up an arsenal that potentially threatens the United States.

Trump has nevertheless appeared keen on a second summit with Kim, even though recent North Korean statements have suggested the two sides are far from narrowing their differences.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told the United Nations last week that continued sanctions were deepening its mistrust in the United States and there was no way Pyongyang would give up its nuclear weapons unilaterally under such circumstances.

Wednesday’s Washington Post quoted South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha as saying in an interview that to break the stalemate, Washington should hold off on its long-standing demand for an inventory of North Korea’s weapons programs and agree to an end-of-war declaration in return for a North Korean pledge to dismantle its Yongbyon nuclear site.

A commentary on North Korea’s official KCNA news agency this week, however, said the declaration should have been resolved half a century ago and it could never be a bargaining chip to persuade it to denuclearize.

Pompeo brushed aside suggestions of differences between himself and Trump over a timeline for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

Pompeo said the day of the Trump-Kim summit he was hopeful that there would be major North Korean disarmament by the end of Trump’s term in January 2021.

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