Mike Pompeo to visit North Korea next week

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo will visit North Korea next week in a bid to press forward with the Trump administration’s efforts to secure the country’s denuclearisation, according to four people familiar with his plans.

The visit will be the first senior level face-to-face contact since US president Donald Trump met leader Kim Jong Un in an unprecedented summit earlier this month.

Their joint declaration was widely derided for lacking concrete detail, but US officials have been trying to take the next steps. US officials told the Financial Times that Mr Pompeo had cancelled a planned meeting with his Indian counterpart, due in Washington in July 6, in order to fly to Pyongyang.

The declaration had stipulated Mr Pompeo would hold “follow-on” talks with an unnamed senior North Korean official “at the earliest possible date”, but had given no timeline. “Mr Pompeo had to cancel the meeting because of important travel related to North Korea,” a US official said. A second US official said an official announcement was expected in the coming days.