THE U.S. State Department said yesterday that the planned meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a visiting senior official from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been delayed.

The top U.S. diplomat had been expected to meet with Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee, in New York today.

Heather Nauert, the department spokesperson, said in a statement that the scheduled meeting “will now take place at a later date.”

“We will reconvene when our respective schedules permit,” Nauert said, adding that the ongoing conversations between Washington and Pyongyang “continue to take place.”

Pompeo and Kim were expected to discuss “making progress on all four pillars of the Singapore Summit joint statement,” according to an earlier statement issued by the State Department.

Pompeo himself revealed in a Sunday interview that he expected some “real progress” in talks with Kim, including “an effort to make sure that the summit between the two leaders can take place.”

The first-ever DPRK-U.S. summit was held in Singapore on June 12. According to a joint statement signed by Trump and Kim, the United States would provide security guarantees to the DPRK in return for Pyongyang’s commitment to denuclearization.(Xinhua)